Continued...
The end of the Civil War and ratification of the thirteenth and fourteenth amendments guaranteed African Americans freedom and equal rights under the law. However, those freedoms were short-lived. In the South, the end of Reconstruction was often marked by violence and intimidation. The Jim Crow era established laws sanctioning discrimination and segregation. In 1896 the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation in Plessy v. Ferguson. The separate but equal doctrine in public education would not be undone until the 1954 Supreme Court decision reversing it in Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka.
In education, as in other parts of society, separate but equal was not equal. Education at this time was the responsibility of local communities, with little help from the state. While there was some funding for white schools historian Henry Allen Bullock described schools for African Americans as “pitiably inadequate” and rural schools “appalling.” The buildings were “too few and poor. As a result, classes were held in churches, lodge halls, and even in abandoned huts. These buildings were often in ill repair, with leaking roofs and gaping walls.”
At the turn of the twentieth century, private funds from northern philanthropists helped improve the educational situation for white students in the South. Booker T. Washington, the well-known African American educator and founder of the Tuskegee Institute believed education was the answer to improving the economic future of African Americans. Though ridiculed by some for promoting the trades over a traditional education he was able to get support for his cause. Washington worked with Quaker philanthropist Anna T. Jeans in 1907 to establish the Jeanes Foundation to hire and train black teachers for rural schools. In 1910 he met Julius Rosenwald, the son of Jewish immigrants and the head of Sears, Roebuck and Company. Rosenwald had read Booker T. Washington’s autobiography, Up from Slavery, and was moved by the story. A year later Rosenwald toured the Tuskegee Institute and met with students and staff there. He was thoroughly impressed and not long after Rosenwald became a trustee of the school.
Washington and Rosenwald soon began a collaboration to build schools for African American children in the South. What started as an experiment to build six public schools in rural Alabama – evolved into a three-pronged funding program that built thousands of schools from Maryland to Texas. School plans by Tuskegee architects were provided for free to white and black communities across the country. Buildings were oriented to take advantage of natural light. Large banks of windows were standard. The plans even specified the color the walls should be painted and how the desks should be arranged.
Nearly 800 Rosenwald Schools were built in North Carolina – more than in any other state. The Mount Vernon School in Iron Station, North Carolina was one of five Rosenwald Schools built in Lincoln County. It is a two-teacher wood-framed schoolhouse that first welcomed students for the 1925 school year. It is just one of two remaining Rosenwald Schools in the county. The only other, Oaklawn,
was renovated by the county after receiving a Community Development Block grant in 2012. The building now houses offices for area non-profits. As was typical for Rosenwald Schools – Mount Vernon was funded by the black community, the white school board, and the Rosenwald Fund. According to information from the Fiske University Rosenwald School database, the total cost to build the school was $2500 with $300 from the black community, $1500 in public funds, and $700 from the Rosenwald Fund.
In the 1920s most of North Carolina was rural and many of its residents were illiterate. The 1920 Federal Census provides some insight into the lives of people who lived in the community, then called Ironton, where the Mount Vernon School was built. Most people there listed their occupation as farmer or farm laborer. Opportunities for African Americans were limited. Of the 120 adults surveyed, just two had jobs working for the railroad, one was a hotel waiter, and three young women were teachers. All others worked as farmers. Most employed white adults surveyed also worked as farmers though occupations were more varied and included laborers at cotton and lumber mills, store salesman, a mechanic, a lawyer, nine teachers, a garage manager, a sheriff, and a driver. Almost all children from the ages of six to sixteen, regardless of race, had been to school that year.
The land on which the Mount Vernon Rosenwald School is situated was sold by white businessman and landowner Andrew Link to the Lincoln County School Board for eight dollars in 1902. The deed states the land was “To be used as a schoolhouse site and for the benefit of the free school for Dist. No. (Mt Vernon) colored race.” That year the first Mount Vernon School was built and stood until the community petitioned for a new Rosenwald school.
On September 10, 1924, William F. Credle, the Rosenwald Fund supervisor with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction sent a request to the Rosenwald Fund for help building twenty-two schools in ten counties. Mount Vernon was one of three schools in Lincoln County approved for funding. Schools were only approved if the black community demonstrated support for the school by raising money and donating labor or land. The school also had to have the backing and financial support of the white community and school board.
Though it seems Credle was able to demonstrate community support for the county schools, in his paper African American Education: A Legacy of 100 Years 1868- 1968 local historian Rudolph Young writes “The Lincoln County commissioners opposed any new black schools.” There are few available documents about the situation, but it is clear in correspondence between Credle and Lincoln County School Superintendent L. Berge Beam as well as a written history from the new Mount Vernon Rosenwald School’s first principal, the process was anything but smooth. On July 7, 1925, Credle wrote to Superintendent Beam saying “You will recall that we had on our list for aid from The Rosenwald Fund last year your three Lincoln County Schools. You also know that none of these have been completed.” He goes on to detail concerns about lumber left sitting at a school site and getting weather-beaten if it isn’t used soon “as the one up the hill has.” Beam responds by saying all three schools will be completed and “may be ready for occupancy this year.”
The local African American communities were frustrated by the long construction delays in building the promised Rosenwald Schools. A black county teacher named T.F. Reinhardt wrote to Credle in September 1925 to ask for help saying, “the parents made great sacrifice” and raised the required funds, but two years later they were still without a school. He requested his name not be used in communications with the superintendent out of fear of losing his job. In a letter in November 1925 to Credle, Harvey Foster writes “…we are still in our dungeon yet. Not anything has been done to that schoolhouse yet... only making promises as before. If there is any help for us we hope to get it soon for the people have about to lose hope.” Days later Credle writes to Superintendent Beam to say…we “are continuously receiving letters from the colored people in your county, who seem to be keenly disappointed in the failure of the county to build some Rosenwald Schools. They point out they have done what was required of them in the matter of raising money and they have been promised from time to time that the buildings would be constructed.”
George Schmoke, the first principal of the new Mount Vernon School, wrote a short history in the 1925-1926 official School Register. He points out the delays and need for continued fundraising. In it, he says “The (old) building was inadequate as a school so a campaign was launched where by the long promised new building might be erected. During the month of November a petition was drawn up and sent to our superintendent. He immediately responded by erecting the new building before December 15th. On December 23rd a concert was given for the purpose of raising funds to beautify the new building on the inside…Sum raised was $12.75. Jan 5 entertainment given for purpose of raising money to beautify the building and to substantiate the treasury of the Parent Teacher Association. Amount raised $9.00. During the later part of the term curtains were bought and the yard was improved. Thus ends the decorative efforts of the term 1925-26.” Though Schmoke notes a quick response by the superintendent, his own words about the long delays and a community petition, as well as Credle’s need to prod the superintendent into finishing the county Rosenwald Schools tell a different story. The Rosenwald Fund signed off on the Mount Vernon School and released allocated funds to the county in the spring of 1926.
Once built, the school functioned as an elementary school with one room for first through third grade and a second classroom for grades four through six. In 1960 the school closed, and classes were moved to the Newbold Elementary School. In 1961 the church next door, the Mount Vernon Missionary Baptist Church, purchased the school and continues to use it as a church meeting hall. Historian Rudolph Young says churches were integral to the support and building of all Rosenwald Schools.
The Mount Vernon School Project has garnered support from like-minded history and preservation groups. The Lincoln County Historical Association helped Mount Vernon secure a grant in 2015 that paid for an assessment of the building, and they continue to support the preservation efforts.
The Mount Vernon Rosenwald School board and volunteers are making progress. Angelo Franceschina, the Project Coordinator and preservationist hired by the nonprofit, has worked on dozens of Rosenwald School projects from Virginia to Alabama. He says the group is still in its startup phase. Building the board, holding regular meetings, opening the school up for community educational programs, looking for grants, contacting potential partners, identifying building deficiencies, and reaching out to community supporters are all part of the planning and foundation work required for future success.
Support from the State Historic Preservation Office is essential when applying for grants, so the nonprofit met with Brett Sturm, the state’s Restoration Specialist for the area. He was excited to find so much original fabric at the school and encouraged the group to move forward with volunteer efforts to strip away the drop ceilings and faux wood paneling. He devised a two-phase restoration plan that among other recommendations included fixing a recent leak in the roof, clearing out the crawlspace, and hiring an independent structural engineer to better examine the building. He also advised the group to spread the word about their plans saying, “…broaden your preservation networking so that all local nonprofits in your area are aware of your goals for the restoration of the Mt. Vernon Rosenwald School. This may open new channels for funding opportunities and contractor references.”
The nonprofit is also working to partner with local businesses, other nonprofits, and area schools and universities. Two local Lowe’s home improvement stores provided volunteers and supplies for cleanup days. Harris Teeter has provided lunches for volunteers. The UNC Charlotte Anthropology Department has conducted archeological digs at the school and used their new GPR (ground penetrating radar) equipment to scan the property for the original school foundation and unmarked graves in the cemetery next door.
Arguably more important than the building itself is the need to tell the story of this school and community. As the years pass former school students are getting older. It is important to identify these people and record their memories of Mount Vernon and life in Iron Station in the final years of segregation. These stories are an important chapter of our country’s history as well as that of the school and community. Knowing these stories will help provide a more full and complex understanding of this time and our shared history in rural North Carolina.