 Tucker was September 5, 2000, and it's important though to note that this day was a culmination of more than 40 years of hard work and dedication on the part of so many people in this city, starting with the decision by the school board to open a new elementary school in the west end of the city. It was a monumental decision given that it was the first new school to be built in Alexandria in more than 30 years, and so all eyes were going to be on this school. And long before I ever became involved, there was a multidisciplinary planning committee of citizens, parents, ACPS officials and leaders that worked diligently to design a school that was going to be a state-of-the-art building worthy of the students, the parents and the community that it was going to serve. I assumed the position of principal, which was an incredible honor for me. I was named in February of 1999, and I assumed that position on July 1 of 1999, 1999, so I spent a lot of time looking at materials we would need, looking at the students we were serving, looking at their achievement records, their needs, the parents, the community, all of those things, but nothing more important than looking at the staff that I was blessed to be able to hire. And so I knew these teachers were, and staff members were the ones that were going to really make the school work. And I will never forget the absolute joy that I felt when my office staff and I were able to come in and set up shop in the school in July of 2000. Two weeks later, the entire staff joined us. We had a week of team building and professional development and touring the school and getting ready. After the first meeting with faculty, before the first meeting we toured the school, and it was nothing but ooze and oz, and I can't believe this place is so beautiful and so wonderful. Then we met in the multi-purpose room, and my first item on the agenda were my opening remarks, and at this time we had all the teachers and the staff. Every cafeteria worker, custodians who were going to be a part of the school, and the topic of my remarks was heroes all around us. And that's when I told the staff the story of Samuel W. Tucker and his life and the challenges he faced and the challenges he overcame and the work he did, his perseverance to make sure that all children had opportunities to get a quality education. You could've heard a pen drop because nobody in that room had ever heard of Samuel W. Tucker before or knew what he stood for. And so they immediately, instinctively, embraced their collective responsibility to carry on Mr. Tucker's legacy through the hard work that we were going to do with the students who were going to be fortunate to attend this school, and we were committed to the fact that Samuel W. Tucker Elementary had to be the kind of school that Mr. Tucker would have envisioned and would have worked so hard to make happen. So that was the first interaction with Tucker and tying his legacy to this school. It was exhilarating, it was exciting, it was a little scary, and it was a lot of fun. We opened the school with about 540 students enrolled, most of whom had been in the prior years of their education bust across the city to attend Jefferson Houston. So they were so excited to have a school in their neighborhood that they could call their neighborhood school. But there was a steady stream of new enrollees by Thanksgiving. I think we were at 575 students. It was built for 600, and we were almost at capacity by Thanksgiving. But what impressed us all the most was the incredible ethnic, socioeconomic, racial, spiritual diversity of the student population. It was amazing, and as I have said many times in my career, our diversity was our greatest strength and also our greatest challenge if we were going to meet the needs of all the students we served. But a big poster, one of the first things we hung in the office was a big poster of children of all skin tones and ethnicities with the words, everyone belongs here. Everybody belongs here. And that's what the teachers and the staff set out to make a school where everybody was included and everybody belonged and everybody would achieve. So that sense of belonging and new beginnings permeated the atmosphere and the spirit of our teachers with that can-do attitude that we were going to make this a place where success was the only option for our students. So that's what I remember from opening day. The first time I ever even heard the name, Samuel Fabia Tucker, was on November 17, 1999 when the school board voted to name the school after him. And somebody handed me a copy of the application, the nomination that was submitted by the inner city civic association that the school be named for Mr. Tucker. And as soon as I read just that application, I knew that our school was named for a person that could be a real hero to our students and a legacy that we could try to continue on. So that was the first time I had ever heard his name. On November 18, I wrote a letter to the members of the inner city civic association introducing myself as the first principal of Samuel W. Tucker Elementary School and thanking them for giving my students such a name, such a name of a wonderful individual, a hero nationally and a hometown hero for Alexandria. I also made the commitment in that letter, and I have a copy of that letter, that every student who attended that school, I promised that they would all know about the life and the legacy of Samuel W. Tucker and the powerful examples of courage and perseverance and integrity and dedication that this man brings to the school. Honored knowing for a man day, and he would tell me more about Samuel W. Tucker, African American School Board member and chair in Virginia. And he was just very similar to Tucker in his integrity, in his perseverance, and in building coalitions with other members of the school board and finally being successful in racially integrating the schools in Alexandria. And it's no coincidence that Samuel W. Tucker Elementary School is located on Ferdinand Day Drive, so that he's another personal hero of mine. So you can imagine my surprise after never hearing about Samuel W. Tucker in school anywhere, that I opened my Washington Post magazine on Sunday, I think it was August, June 11th, excuse me, where there was a major article written by a gentleman named S.J. Ackerman called The Trials of S.W. Tucker. And it was a feature article on Samuel W. Tucker that taught me even more than I had ever known about the man and enriched my education about him. But what struck a chord with me in reading this article is my own personal connection because the library's sit-in was in August of 1939. My parents were married in August of 1939 and moved to Alexandria, Virginia and lived in the presidential garden's apartments, which are now, I think, presidential greens located in Chirolago neighborhood. So they were here at the same time this was happening in our hometown. I never heard anything from them about the Queen Street sit-in. I never heard anything about Mr. Tucker. I went to school from first grade to 12th grade in the Alexandria City of Public Schools. I didn't go to kindergarten because they didn't have kindergarten back then. But first through 12th grade and never was there a lesson. Never was I taught anything about this person who was such a major force in the city of Alexandria in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It just wasn't taught. And so I'm happy to report that Mr. Tucker's life is now a part of the ACPS elementary social studies curriculum. The librarian here even wrote a book about Samuel W. Tucker for children. And so he is now very much remembered. Of course, the dedication ceremony was planned. There was a dedication planning committee because everything gets to the planning committee. But again, this was community members and parents and school officials. And Fernande was a member of that planning, a dedication planning committee. And so was Lee Boy Steel, who I think at that time, I don't know, it would be the president of the inner city civic association. But every detail was covered. And of course, you had remarks by the mayor who was Kerry Donnelly at the time and by the chairman of the school board, Steve Camili and by Superintendent Berg. Most impressive about that ceremony for me were the children's performances. Because one of our students read a biography that he had researched of Samuel W. Tucker. Several students read short poems and essays that they had written about why Mr. Tucker was a hero to them. Songs like Lift Every Voice and Sing were performed, as well as I Am a Rainbow. We're all one under the sun. I really believe that Mr. Tucker would have been very pleased with this ceremony. At the very end of the ceremony, we unveiled the portrait of Samuel Tucker, which I think now hangs in the lobby. I believe that young people need real heroes in their lives. And I think too often in these days, young people confuse entertainers and celebrities and sports figures as heroes. Heroes are people that leave a legacy and are role models to emulate for their work to make the world a better place. I also believe that the students were given a true gift. When Samuel W. Tucker became the namesake of the school. Samuel W. Tucker was a man who endured countless acts of prejudice and injustice, but never gave in or gave up to it. He was, he never accepted the status quo. He instead used education and nonviolence to find peaceful ways to bring change to our world. He devoted his entire life, adult life, to ensuring equal rights for all people. And most importantly, he drew that first line in the sand in the right of individuals to have access to good books found in public libraries that were open to all citizens. So of course my students, our students, the school students had to know about Samuel W. Tucker. So teachers within the first three days of school were all known that the story of Tucker should be taught an age-appropriate rate to their students. And all over popped up students' self-portraits of Samuel W. Tucker that they did in art class or poems about Samuel W. Tucker. The whole school was displayed with information about Samuel W. Tucker from kindergarten to fifth grade. Every year, the first week of school, one of the first lessons was to remind or to teach new students, because we had quite a mobility rate about the man for whom their school was named and how he relates. And our mantra was every student in the school has got to learn to read, because Mr. Tucker gave you the access to those books. So I can't think of a more important lesson to teach our students.