“DeLois Warr and Her Contributions to Mt. Jackson, VA”
DeLois Nancy Bullett Warr was honored during the 2025 First Freedom Fund Banquet of the Shenandoah County NAACP for her contributions to the Town of Mt. Jackson and the surrounding communities. Warr spent her life in Mt. Jackson where both of her parents, John Henry and Charlotte Elizabeth Green Bullett also grew up. There were few black families in Mt. Jackson; she grew up playing with white children in the neighborhood even though she could not go to the same schools that they attended.
My first encounter with DeLois was through her children; I was their elementary librarian at Ashby-Lee Elementary School located between Mt. Jackson and New Market. Later, DeLois worked at the school as an instructional assistant. When I did a project “School Desegregation in Virginia: A Written and Oral Historical Perspective” for a James Madison University class Education 620: History of American Education, in Fall of 1994, I started learning more about segregation in Virginia schools, as well as desegregation. As part of the project, I interviewed many black educators whom I knew, as well as black students who were the first to attend the white schools.
One of the people whom I interviewed for my project was DeLois. I wanted to know about her education in black schools in Shenandoah County as well as in Harrisonburg, Virginia. I found out that she was one of the first black students to enter Stonewall Jackson High School on the southern campus of Shenandoah County Public Schools in 1963. The school had opened in 1959 and like many schools in the South, was named for a Confederate general. Even though the Brown vs Board of Education decision was issued by the Supreme Court in 1954, it took a long time for Virginia’s schools to be desegrated by the courts.
DeLois went to elementary school at the Creekside School for black children in Woodstock, VA. For much of her elementary career, she and the other black students were taken to Creekside by a taxi driver. If he happened to get a fare, they might have to wait until he came, resulting in being late to school, or getting home late.
At the time, Shenandoah County had no high schools for black students. DeLois attended Lucy Simms School in Harrisonburg, VA. Her parents found a home in which she could board while attending high school. Because she had eight siblings, she had to wait out a year before she could start going to high school as her parents could not afford boarding for her. Later, Shenandoah County provided a county car for her family to drive black students to Harrisonburg after her father requested it; her mother drove it but didn’t get paid for driving. DeLois remembers that when the county car got too crowded, so they were transported in a small van with no seats which her cousin drove without being paid. When her cousin went to the military, a white neighbor, Jewel Hirsh, talked to the Shenandoah County School Board about providing transportation for the black students. Jewel Hirsh drove the van with no pay and later drove the bus to transport the black students to Lucy Simms in the early 60s. DeLois has fond memories of her time at Lucy Simms school where she was a cheerleader and on the drill team.
On the day that seven black students began attending Stonewall Jackson High School in 1963, DeLois recalls that the National Guard was there, but everything went smoothly. DeLois notes that one white student yelled out “Go back to Africa, n******.” She was a junior in 1963 and spent two years at SJHS before she graduated. She stated that the other students were more welcoming than the teachers.
When the black Methodist church they attended in Mt. Jackson closed, DeLois’ family was not welcomed at the white churches in town. Instead, she became a member of Manor Memorial United Methodist Church in New Market in 1964, where she sang in the choir with the former superintendent who had hired her to work in SCPS. DeLois still attends MMUMC today.
DeLois was instrumental in spearheading the restoration of the Mount Jackson Colored Cemetery in 2004. Later, other groups and individuals including the Town of Mount Jackson began helping with cemetery maintenance and upgrades, but DeLois was the leader in the restoration project. The cemetery was just added to the Virginia Landmark’s Registry in December 2025.
If one searches online for DeLois Warr, a number of digital resources come up including an interview with Zach Hottel, archivist for the Truban Archives at the Shenandoah County Library in 2016; and a YouTube interview with a Stonewall Jackson High School student in Jeff Burner’s class in 2021. Learn more about her life and legacy by exploring these resources highlighting DeLois and her contributions to the community!
