Tag Archives: Historic Black Schools

Meriwether County Training School, 1928, Manchester

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This historic African-American schoolhouse was built in Manchester in 1928 with funds from the Julius Rosenwald Foundation. It was a five-classroom design and was the only Rosenwald school in the county until the construction of the Eleanor Roosevelt School in nearby Warm Springs in 1936. It’s an exceptionally nice example of a Rosenwald, featuring a brick veneer, ornamental quoins at the corners, a fanlight above the entrance (now obscured), a circular window on the front gable, and a cupola (since removed). On one of his many visits to the area, future President Franklin D. Roosevelt noted his admiration for the Manchester school. He said, “When I was at Warm Springs in 1927-28, I was out riding with two members of our local school board. As we passed a very attractive school a few miles from Warm Springs I remarked that it was a very beautiful building.” The chairman of the board said “That’s a Rosenwald Negro School.” The other member said, “It puts our Warm Springs white school to shame.”

The Manchester Rosenwald soon became a county training school and enrollment increased rapidly. To accommodate this growth, a wooden annex was constructed next door. An exact date for the annex is unknown, but it was built in the 1930s. After serving the community until desegregation of Meriwether County schools, the Meriwether County Training School was abandoned for some time. From the 1980s until the early 2000s, it served the local Head Start program and now sits empty once again. I spoke with a lady whose husband attended the school and she was hopeful that it will be preserved for future generations.

Martin Elementary School, 1956, Bronwood

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Martin Elementary School is an historic Equalization School in Bronwood, serving grades 1-7. It was named for local Black educator Walter Martin. The L-shaped 13-room International Style structure opened in 1956 and served the community until 1970, when schools were fully integrated in Terrell County. Notably, it was designed by the prominent Georgia Classicist, Edward Vason Jones, and represented a departure from the formal architecture for which he was best known. This was quite a bold move, as most White architects in the state would not work on projects for African-Americans at the time.

In 1955, according to the nomination form for the National Register of Historic Places, “one year after the Brown v. Board decision ruled racially segregated public services and accommodations as unconstitutional, the Dawson News—a newspaper published in Terrell County—reported that local whites were prepared to shut down the entire school system rather than submit to integration and that the local school board had moved forward with its plans to build several new schools for African-American students. The newspaper printed a statement released by Robert Pinkston—county school superintendent—that declared if the local schools were integrated that the county would respond by refusing to collect any further tax revenues. If implemented such an action would have effectively shut down the county’s entire public school system…The Georgia General Assembly considered a similar proposal. Fortunately, only two of its members—one of whom was future governor Zell Miller—supported the plan, thereby sparing the state’s school system from closure.”

Part of the building was used as a nightclub in the late 1980s, but has otherwise been abandoned. There have been suggestions of an effort to restore it for use as a community center but I don’t think that is currently the case.

National Register of Historic Places

Smithville Rosenwald School, 1928, Lee County

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According to the November 2005 issue of Reflections, a newsletter of the Georgia African American Historic Preservation Network, a school for Black children in Smithville was established in an abandoned house by A. R. Robinson in 1903. The students performed so well that the county school board built a three-room schoolhouse for their use. It was destroyed by fire at some point, and classes were held in the Masonic lodge and local churches.

A new four-teacher school, which taught students through the eighth grade, was built in 1928, with the aid of the Julius Rosenwald Fund. It also included a library and auditorium.

After the Brown v. Board decision in 1955, the Smithville Rosenwald School closed. It was used for a time as an apartment building, according to Smithville, Georgia: A Glimpse Into the Past (1976). It has been abandoned for many years and at this time is in derelict condition. There has been some interest in restoration but I’m unaware of the progress at this time.

Washington Street High School Gymnasium, 1954, Quitman

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This gymnasium, built as a part of the Washington Street High School in 1954 during the era of Equalization Schools, is all that remains of Quitman’s Black high school from the last years of segregation. Washington Street, which also included an elementary school, was open from 1955-1970 and replaced Brooks High School, which was deemed substandard. According to the Georgia High School Football Association, the Washington Street football team held the Georgia Interscholastic Association record for most points scored in a game, defeating Washington High School of Blakely 126-14 on 10 October 1969. After integration, the school became Brooks County Middle School.

There is now an effort to save the gymnasium. One of its big backers is Brooks County commissioner James Maxwell, a Washington Street alumnus, who over thirty years ago was the first Black man elected to the county commission. Other alumni, including Dr. Rose Marie Horne, the first female physician in Brooks County, are passionate about preserving the gymnasium and assigning it landmark status.

Church of the Good Shepherd, 1894, Thomasville

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The Church of the Good Shepherd was established in 1894 by 27 men and women familiar with the services of the Episcopal church and who wanted a congregation of their own. Members of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, with the full support of Rev. Charles LeRoche, assisted in construction of Good Shepherd. It’s one of just a few Black Episcopal congregations formed by African-Americans in Georgia, although it was always welcoming of all races. The vernacular Victorian sanctuary was built in 1894, and the parish hall (seen right, above) was built circa 1896 and expanded circa 1923. The parish hall served as a parochial school from 1894,-1964. John W. ‘Jack’ Carter, a prominent member of the Black community, was instrumental in establishing the school. [The vicarage, not pictured, is also included in the National Register, and was built in 1908.]

National Register of Historic Places

Colored YMCA, Thomasville

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I believe this may be the earliest surviving structure of the Douglass School. The original school, with five classrooms, stood at this same intersection, but I’m not sure at which corner. Jack Hadley notes that this fine building served as “Douglass High School’s extended classroom.” It probably dates to circa 1910, or even a bit earlier.

When W. J. Varner served as principal at Douglass, he also served as secretary of the YMCA, and this structure became home to the first “Colored YMCA” in Thomasville. It appears to be in wonderful condition, and is now home to the True Vine Church of Deliverance.

Stevens Street Historic District, National Register of Historic Places

Douglass School, Thomasville

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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

Evergreen Congregational Church, 1928, & School, 1911, Beachton

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Now known as Evergreen United Church of Christ, this historic congregation was established in 1903 with the assistance of the American Missionary Association, an arm of the United Church of Christ focused on the construction and support of schools for Black children in the South. Under the leadership of Jerry Walden, Jr., a group of men in the Beachton community formed the Evergreen Congregational Church and built a wood-frame schoolhouse on land donated by Please Hawthorne. A frame church was built adjacent to the school in 1904. Rev. William H. Holloway, the first pastor, served until 1911.

The present school building was constructed in 1911 and renamed the Grady County Training School. It featured classrooms downstairs and residences for teachers upstairs and was designed by James E. Wright, Sr., of Thomasville, one of Georgia’s first professional Black architects. According to the Jack Hadley Black History Museum: “James Ernest Wright, Sr., (1887-1972), was the first African American architect in Thomasville, Georgia. He received his degree in architecture and brick masonry from the Tuskegee Institute during the tenure of Booker T. Washington. When he arrived in Thomasville in 1916, he drew plans for Mount Olive Primitive Baptist Church and helped build the barns at Pebble Hill Plantation.”

The old wooden church was demolished in 1925 and the present structure completed in 1928. Andrew Young, one of the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, served as Evergreen’s pastor from 1957-1959, and wrote in his autobiography that the lessons he learned at Evergreen served him during the struggle for Civil Rights.

National Register of Historic Places

Smith Chapel Schoolhouse, 1934, Lincoln County

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This landmark near the Savannah River has often been identified as Smith (Smith’s) Chapel, but further research indicates it was actually the Smith Chapel schoolhouse. Its architecture is typical for a rural schoolhouse of the early 1900s.

A 1989 Georgia Historic Resources Survey notes that the church was torn down at some point and this building was used for a society meeting hall. The sign someone added in recent years notes that the church was established on 28 July 1911. The resource survey dates this structure to circa 1934.

Old school bus seats used as benches or pews are a fascinating feature, something I’ve never encountered before. They wouldn’t have been here originally. Nationally famous outsider/folk artist Leonard Jones painted the sign in tribute to the congregation. His work on tin is widely collected. George W. Bush owns one.

The painting at bottom left gives an idea of what the church looked like, a typical vernacular church with a steeple.

Rose Hill School, 1937, Porterdale

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Rose Hill is a historically black community in northeast Porterdale that was originally developed in the early 1900s as a segregated residential community for mill workers. The school was built in 1937 by the Bibb Manufacturing Company and also served as a church and a community gathering place. Rose Hill School and church was the only African American educational establishment in Porterdale while the mill was in operation. The building has remained largely unchanged since construction and reflects a unique era of development in a distinctive mill community.

Porterdale Historic District, National Register of Historic Places