Photograph Courtesy Library of Virginia

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Biography of Janie Porter Barrett

Mrs. Janie Porter Barrett, for whom the Barrett Daycare Center was named, was a teacher whose life was dedicated to the education of African-American children in Virginia. Mrs. Barrett, whose maiden name was Janie Aurora Porter, was born in Athens, Georgia in 1865. She graduated from Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia in 1884. After she graduated, she took a teaching job in a small southwest Georgia town and later at Haines Institute in Augusta, Georgia. Mrs. Barrett eventually returned to Hampton, where she taught day and eveninig classes at the Butter Oak School. She also taught at Shellbanks, and during her Summer vacations she taught classes for Native American children, and later founded a home for homeless girls in Hampton. In the Fall of 1889, Miss Porter married another Hampton graduate, Mr. Harris Barrett. In 1914, Mrs. Barrett founded the Industrial School at Peake's Turnout, Virginia. She became its first Superintendent in 1915 and served in that capacity until she retired in June, 1940. It was at this time that the Industrial School changed its name to the Janie Porter Barrett School, to honor its founder. Mrs. Barrett died in August, 1948. At the celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the School on May 20, 1965, a plaque was unveiled in her honor. The inscription read: