Before the construction of Douglass High School, Black high school students attended classes in an unsafe building on the 2^nd floor of the Loudoun County Training School.  In the late 1930’s, the County-Wide League, formed from parent-teacher associations of various Black schools in Loudoun County, raised money and purchased land to build an accredited high school. The League purchased land and hired well-known civil rights attorney Charles H. Houston to help persuade county officials to allocate funds for the new school.  The League successfully negotiated to sell the land for $1 to the county in exchange for a school.  In 1941, the League succeeded and the School Board obtained a loan of $30,000 from the State Literary Fund. Named for Frederick Douglass, noted black abolitionist and orator, Douglass is a testament to the Black communities’ determination to obtain an equal education for their children.