Walker–Grant School is an historic school in Fredericksburg, Virginia. The school was built in 1938 and was the first publicly supported black high school in Fredericksburg. The school was named for Joseph Walker (born 1854) and Jason Grant (1861–1951) who worked to establish the school. The Art Deco designed school was added to the National Register of Historic Places in October 1998.Joseph Walker and Jason GrantWalker was born into slavery in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. He was owned by the Goodwin family. Once freed at the conclusion of the American Civil War, he held a variety of jobs in Caroline and Spotsylvania counties. In the 1870s he moved to Fredericksburg where he worked at a paper mill. Though he was almost entirely self-taught, and unable to read or write well, he had a strong interest in education.Grant's father was a slave in Kentucky who fled to Chatham, Ontario, Canada to escape a whipping. Grant attended schools in Chatham, Pontiac, Michigan, and at the Wilberforce Educational Institute in Ohio. Grant met a teacher from Fredericksburg, Virginia while he was working as a waiter in New York. He was convinced to move to Fredericksburg to teach there. He taught mostly in country schools and was the principal of the Fredericksburg Colored School. In 1924 he retired after 42 years in education.
