Equalization-era school buildings that primarily served as Douglass Elementary School still remain on a campus that also included part of Douglass High School, Thomasville’s historic Black high school. It was named for Frederick Douglass, who had visited Thomasville in 1895.

Douglass High School was demolished when local schools were fully integrated in 1970, but the elementary school remained in used thereafter. The Douglass Alumni Association purchased the complex from the city in the early 2000s. The property is known as the Frederick Douglass Complex today, and houses the Jack Hadley Black History Museum. Mr. Hadley’s important research, readily available on the museum’s website, is the source of all the Black Thomasville history I’ve shared.

Dewey City Historic District, National Register of Historic Places