Lorraine Payne Williams, a retired educator and civil rights trailblazer, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 98.

Lorraine, alongside her husband Eugene, played an instrumental role in desegregating Charlottesville’s schools.

As a teacher of business education at Jackson P. Burley High School, the couple  joined a lawsuit against the Charlottesville School Board, advocating for adherence to the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education.

Their own daughters among the first to enroll in formerly all-White institutions.

Williams, born in 1925, grew up in the Ivy-area community of Broad Axe, where she and her siblings navigated the challenges of segregation to receive their education.

She pursued higher learning at the Hampton Institute and later earned a master’s degree from the University of Virginia School of Education.