Appreciating Arlington Educator Katherine Mosley Ross

This Teacher Appreciation Week, we’re showing our appreciation for Arlington educator Katherine Mosley Ross.

A photo of Katherine Ross with a white garment on her head, a white dress and white pearls around her neck.

Katherine Ross, date unknown. From her funeral program, 2003.

Katherine Mosley (Woodson) Ross was born on May 19, 1905, in Lynchburg, Virginia. She was the first child born to William Edward Mosley, a blacksmith who owned a shop in what was then known as Hell’s Bottom and Emma Isabel Mosley, a housewife who briefly worked for the government during World War I.

Shortly after Ross’ birth, William and Emma built a home at 909 S. Scott St., where they lived for the rest of their lives. The house is still standing, directly next door to St. John’s Baptist Church, which was built in 1907.

Ross’ elementary education began at St. John’s Baptist Church School. By the time she entered the fourth grade, the church school had closed, and she began attending what was known as the “new Jefferson School,” a 4-room schoolhouse built on land purchased from the South Arlington Cemetery Corporation in 1914.

The “old” Jefferson School was the first public elementary school for Black students in Arlington, established in 1870.

The main building of the Hoffman-Boston Junior High School formerly known as the Jefferson School in black and white and a medium size two storied building.

The main building of the Hoffman-Boston Junior High School (formerly the Jefferson School), a segregated school built in 1915 with an addition added in 1931, at 1415 S. Queen Street. The building is currently part of the Hoffman-Boston Elementary School campus. From RG 32.

While Ross was a student at Jefferson, Fletcher Kemp began his long tenure as superintendent. He became known for his vigorous efforts to reform the school system. In an oral history interview, Ross cited Superintendent Kemp as someone who encouraged and inspired her to pursue a career in teaching.

[Kemp] said, "I want you to go over there to Dunbar or Armstrong and go further and come back here and teach in my school.” And I knew he was talking to me, he looked right at me, and he said, "I expect you to come back and teach in my school."

Then, you know, you didn't answer. But I smiled, and I just said, well I was going to do it. I was going to do it anyway, but I was going to do it. And I knew he meant for me to come back and teach in Arlington County Public Schools.

Ross would go on to do just that. After graduating from Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C. (there were no Black high schools in Arlington at that time), she enrolled in the Minors Teacher College at Georgia Avenue and Harvard Street.

Every morning, Ross would have to leave her house at 7 a.m., take a trolley from Arlington to Pennsylvania Avenue and hop on a streetcar to get to school. She was forced to ride in the back of the trolley.

As far back as I can remember, my father used to tell me that there was a law ... and that law said that there was a difference between white and Black. But the minute he said that, he said, “but the law is wrong.”

He said, “there isn't any difference. So far as brains, you have just as much brains as anybody. But the law says: This is why you have to sit in the back of the trolley. This is why you can't go to some places in Washington D.C.” Well, there wasn't any place in Arlington to go, so it didn't make too much difference. But if there was a restaurant or whatever in Arlington, I couldn't have gone to it anyway.

But he insisted on telling me that the law was wrong. “But it's the law, so I don't want you to get hurt...But remember that regardless of what you have to do, it is wrong. And one of these days, it's going to change.” Well, it was a little difficult, but I believed what he said.

So, when I rode on the trolley, I knew I had to sit in the back. But I knew that was the worst place in the world, I shouldn't have to be there.

After graduating from teaching school, Ross applied for a job with the Arlington County Public School system. Kemp hired her and appointed her to teach first and second grade at Langston School. She held that post for four years before marrying her first husband.

At the time, married women were not permitted to teach in Arlington, so, she left and didn’t return to teach at Arlington Public Schools until 1937. In the meantime, she earned her bachelor's degree while continuing to teach in North Carolina and Campbell County, Virginia.

A young black girl performing a dance, standing on her toes.

Girl performing dance on toe shoes at Langston School, 1955. From PG 218.

When Ross returned to Arlington, she was appointed to the new Hoffman-Boston High School – the first Black high school in the county, established at the former Jefferson School, where she had found her inspiration to teach two decades prior.

Despite the efforts of the teachers, the resources that students had access to were inadequate compared to the white high schools. Ross and others were known to send their students to libraries in D.C. to supplement their education, since the Hoffman-Boston Library was lacking.

Black students eating lunch with each other at Hoffman-Boston High School.

Lunch time at Hoffman-Boston High School. From RG 307.

In 1941, with the U.S. joining the war effort, the Pentagon was built, displacing the Black families who lived in what was known as Queen City. Most relocated to Green Valley, causing the student population to skyrocket at the local Kemper Elementary School (later renamed Drew Elementary School).

Superintendent Kemp called upon Ross to be a leader to the teachers at Kemper. She helped them make the best of their strained resources and contend with squeezing a full day’s curriculum into half-day shifts, which allowed them to teach as many students as possible.

A two-story building used for schooling.

The second Kemper School building, built in 1893 for Black students in the Green Valley/Nauck neighborhood. The building was replaced in 1945 and is now the Charles R. Drew Elementary School at 3500 23rd Street. From RG 32.

When Arlington Public Schools desegregated in 1959, Drew Elementary began to receive its first white students. Around this time, Ross became an assistant principal, supervising grades three through six. She oversaw the integration of the first white teacher, Ms. Hopkins, into a previously all-Black school.

Ross continued to teach at Drew until her retirement in 1970, after a 45-year career.

In addition to her career as a lifelong educator, Ross was a proud member of St. John’s Baptist Church for over 85 years. She devoted her time and leadership to the senior choir, trustee board, vacation Bible school and Sunday school. Her legacy to the church and community is the Katherine Mosley Ross Scholarship Fund, inspired by her loving dedication to education.

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