“The principal announced our school was going to close so at first it it seemed like a small vacation,” says June Jeffrey.

June Jeffrey was a senior at Warren County High School back in 1958. She says, when she found out these doors might stay closed for good, it was scary.

“We were seniors and we needed to know if we were going to graduate,” she adds.

June's class is called the Lost Class of '59 because many of those seniors never graduated from their high school. The school’s doors remained closed until a historic day in February 1959. A day, Reverend James Kilby will never forget.

“A least 150, 200 protesters and they were hollering and screaming and telling us to go home and calling us the 'n' word. I was 16-years-old. I couldn't understand why, adults would treat kids that way who wanted to get their education,” he says.

Kilby was one of the Warren County 23, the first black students who integrated Warren County High School after a judge ruled it unconstitutional to keep them out.

After unveiling the marker that commemorates their fight for equality, Kilby, Jeffrey and other members of the Warren County 23 and the Lost Class of '59 walked together through the doors of their high school for the first time in 50 years.

“It's a sign of unity, walking up the hill together, being together, we've come a great way, we still have ways to go but i just believe that we can work together now. It's broken down some of the things that have stood in our way to be here today,” Jeffrey adds.

“I rejoice today because I've been through the struggle and today was peaceful. It was a day we could celebrate,” Kilby adds.

The marker is set right outside the former Warren County High School, now the middle school.

You can see as you drive along Luray Avenue.