The first black person to enroll at Virginia Tech has died

Irving L. Peddrew III of Hampton, who integrated Virginia Tech’s classrooms in 1953, died May 11. He was 88.

As a student, Peddrew was forced to live and eat off campus. Decades later, he became the namesake of a residence that now houses more than 200 students and a Black culture-themed living-learning community.

Peddrew was the first black student admitted to a historically white, four-year public institution in any of the eleven former states of the Confederacy. He arrived in Blacksburg months before the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision, and during his freshman year he was the only African American among the 3,322 students at Tech.

Although Peddrew chose to withdraw from the university before the start of his senior year, his academic performance and character impressed many, paving the way for other black students, including three in 1954. In 2003, Virginia Tech named Peddrew -Yates Hall for him. and Charlie L. Yates, who became the university’s first black graduate in 1958.

In 2016, Peddrew became only the ninth person to receive an honorary degree from Virginia Tech. University President Tim Sands awarded Peddrew a bachelor’s degree in engineering at the start of that year.

“Mr. Peddrew endured unfair and oppressive treatment with dignity and strength in the hope of making a difference for those who would follow him – and he did,” said Sands. “It was an honor to get to know him and to to present the Virginia Tech degree he earned. He will be remembered as a leader among those who laid the foundation for our growth as a diverse and inclusive institution.”

Ed Baine, rector of the Board of Visitors, said Peddrew was an inspirational figure to generations of Hokies.

“It takes a special person to be a pioneer,” said Baine, a member of the Class of 1995. “I am grateful to Irving Peddrew who opened the door for thousands of black students to attend Virginia Tech… He came back to Virginia Tech, again and again, later in life, to help connect our community. He was a cherished member of the Hokie family and we send our condolences to his family. We will all miss him.”

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Pedrew grew up in a family where education was a priority, but expectations of acceptance in the Jim Crow South were tempered. His parents attended what is now Hampton University. Peddrew excelled at George P. Phoenix High School in Hampton. He played the saxophone and clarinet and was a member of the school’s marching and concert bands.

When Peddrew was considering college, he first leaned toward the University of Southern California. A teacher he admired encouraged him to apply to several Virginia schools that had never admitted black students.

He listened and submitted several in-state applications. Only Virginia Tech said yes, but there was a catch that Peddrew discovered when he arrived in Blacksburg: He couldn’t live on campus or eat in the dining facilities. He ended up with a black couple, Janie and William Hoge, in their home on Clay Street.

“I thought I would be part of the student population,” Peddrew said in 2020. “I didn’t know about all the restrictions. But since I was there, I said, ‘Let’s make the best of it.’

In interviews in 2002, 2020 and 2021, Peddrew described pleasant and painful moments. He felt part of a team during Corps of Cadets exercises. Several classmates told him they would like to live in his room if that happened. Johnson Publications, which produced Ebony and Jet magazines, sent a photographer to campus to photograph him.

University administrators told him, he recalled, that “because of my performance and the way I conducted myself during my freshman year, my freshman year, they were convinced that accepting more black students wouldn’t necessarily be a problem. ”

He also recalled the painful decision he made, under social pressure, not to participate in the Ring Dance, an event that celebrates the transition from junior to senior year. Rumors circulated at the time that nearby women’s schools would not admit their students if Peddrew went. Although the rumors turned out to be unfounded, he ultimately decided not to go.

Around that time, Peddrew, through his involvement with the YMCA, traveled to the West Coast as part of a project called Students in Vocation, met with colleagues from around the country and decided not to return to Virginia Tech.

He continued his education at the University of Southern California and built a business career in San Francisco and then Los Angeles, in positions that allowed him to travel.

He eventually returned to Virginia. He worked at Newport News Shipbuilding and Hampton University before retiring in 1994.

When Peddrew reconnected with Virginia Tech, he received a very different reception. Fifty years after his matriculation, more than 500 people attended the ceremony to dedicate Peddrew-Yates Hall, the university’s first building named for African Americans.

“At the time, I wasn’t even allowed to live on campus,” Peddrew said during the ceremony. “So while this is an ironic honor, it is still a great honor that my family and I will cherish.”

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After returning to Hampton, Peddrew became good friends with Jim Watkins, a local dentist who graduated from Tech in 1971. Watkins has been involved with Virginia Tech’s Black Alumni Reunion program since its inception and serves on the board of the Virginia Tech Black Alumni Society; he often accompanied Peddrew to college events. One event was the 2016 graduation ceremony, when Peddrew received his honorary doctorate.

“I know he appreciated that,” Watkins said. “He really shined. I won’t say it felt as good to him as it would have if he had gotten it at 21, but I know he appreciated it. I, as a black alum, appreciated it. I felt closer to Virginia Tech that day than I did to my own graduation – more than ever before, except perhaps for my grandson’s graduation from Virginia Tech in 2021.”

In 2017, Peddrew returned to campus to deliver the keynote address at a conference for students, faculty and staff hosted by the Virginia Tech Black Male Excellence Network.

“It was almost full circle,” recalls 2014 graduate alumnus Tommy Amal, who helped coordinate the event. “We had all these participants, young black men, many in the Corps of Cadets or actually living in Peddrew-Yates Hall at the time, and were able to see their lives reflected in his story. It’s a great story.”

At another point the circle was complete. Peddrew, who felt so unwelcome at the 1956 Ring Dance that he skipped it, was chosen by the Class of 2023 as the ring’s namesake.

“I wasn’t really a student,” Peddrew said when the honor was announced. “I wasn’t fully accepted, and now I am. I am. I really feel part of the university and I can say: ‘I can serve that.’”

This article first appeared on news.vt.edu.