First Graduating Class of Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute

The first graduating class of Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute (later Virginia State University) poses for a group portrait in 1886. Three faculty members are seated: school president John Mercer Langston, at far left; Ida R. Harris, at center; and James Major Colson, at far right. Students standing from left to right are James Shields, Lucretia Campbell Johnson, Susie Douglass Pinn, Fannie Walker Tatum, Carrie Bragg Campbell, Willie Davis, and Jerry Lucas. An eighth student, Robert Green, sits between faculty members Langston and Harris.