The Douglass-Slater Bristol Classic 2020 is set for Saturday afternoon February 1, 2020 at Ballard Lee Court at Virginia High School. When the Bearcats of Virginia High meet their crosstown rival Tennessee High Vikings in basketball that afternoon, both the girls and boys varsity teams will be wearing the uniforms of the Douglass High School Demons (Virginia High) and the Slater High School Wolves (Tennessee High).

Alumni from the segregated high schools will be honored with a brief ceremony at 4:00 on the basketball floor. There will be a reception area in the old VHS gymnasium all afternoon, with memorabilia from those bygone days. The event is a part of the 400 year commemoration of the first African-Americans coming to British North America as well as kicking off Black History Month. The basketball game pays tribute to the legacy of the two schools and the alumni that succeeded despite the barriers the Jim Crow system placed on Bristol’s African-American community well into the 1960s.

The event is a part of a quadruple header which will begin with the Girls' JV contest at 1:00, followed by the Boys' JV game at 2:30. The varsity doubleheader will begin twenty minutes after the conclusion of the pre-game ceremony honoring the alumni from Douglass and Slater High Schools. Please make plans to attend this seminal event.

Thank you,

Keith Perrigan
Superintendent
Bristol Virginia Public Schools
220 Lee St.
Bristol, VA 24201
(276) 821-5600
@BristolSuper
Preparing Students to Thrive in a Dynamically Changing World