Lambright House, Freedmen’s Grove

The venerable home of Ms. Rosa Lambright remains the symbol of the Freedmen’s Grove community [sometimes spelled, as on the adjacent road, Freedman or Freedman’s Grove]. I can’t resist driving by when I’m in the area and have photographed it numerous times over the past eight years. Olivia Baker shared background on the house on Vanishing South Georgia on 31 March 2010: …The lady that lived in this house was a dynamic elementary school teacher. Ms. Lambright taught generations of families in the Liberty County community. She was affectionately known and respected by members of the Limerick, and Freedman Grove community, and a faithful member and leader of the “Ebernezer Presbyterian Church. [She] actively supported the annual Vacation Bible School and end of the summer “August Picnic”. The community looked forward to these events each year.  On 6 August 2010 she added: Ms. Lambright taught 1st – 3rd grades in a two-room wood framed, white schoolhouse, located about 3/4 mile down Freedman Grove Road. 4th – 5th Grades were taught by Mrs. M. Baker. Ms. Lambright taught my father and my mother, my father was born in 1918. I was born in 1945; she taught me and my four older siblings. I do not know the exact dates she taught. However, I do know that she taught between 1918 and 1950’s. On or about 1953 the two-room school closed, when similar schools throughout Liberty County were closed and students attending these smaller 2-room “schools” were transferred to the Liberty County Elementary/High School. I subsequently graduated from Liberty County High School in 1963. Also, during those years public schools were still segregated…

It’s an anchor, a sustainable property of the sort that was once the rule among African-American communities in Coastal Georgia. To me, it’s an icon of the coast.

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