Virginia Interscholastic Association

The Virginia Interscholastic Association was an educational and extracurricular organization formed in 1954 by African American secondary school principals and administrators to provide African American high school students in Virginia with athletic, artistic, academic, and leadership opportunities unavailable to them in segregated schools. From April 1954 to August 1969, over 100 schools participated with the VIA and approximately 40,000 students became members of the organization. Once defunded, the VIA merged with the Virginia High School League (VHSL). The distinguished alumni of the VIA include Mary Winston Jackson, one of the three women featured in the book Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly and the film of the same title, tennis champion Arthur Ashe, and basketball’s Bobby Dandridge. The VIA served schools that were seen as a "beacon of hope" by many students.

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