AFRICAN AMERICAN SCHOOL BUILDING REVIVAL
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The 1950s were ushered in by the filing of multiple lawsuits across the country challenging the constitutionality of "separate but equal" schooling and calling for the integration of schools. Five became consolidated as Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. As the case awaited review by the Supreme Court, some states, like South Carolina and Mississippi made a last-ditch effort to protect segregation by implementing programs of school equalization that created new modern school buildings for African Americans “equal” to those for Whites.
Louisiana did not institute such an official program, but new modern school facilities were constructed for African Americans across the state in the 1950s. This trend appears to have been derived from heightened African American demands for equal facilities and from acknowledgment by school officials that new buildings were truly needed. Regardless of the impetus behind it, the construction of new modern schools in the 1950s provided African Americans with long-awaited quality learning. Not only did these facilities support the education of children who went on to college and successful careers; but with their large gymnasiums, auditoriums, and fields, they were home to parade plays, dances, concerts, sports games, and more. They were centers of community activity. Yet, when desegregation was finally instituted in full across the state in 1970, few retained their status as high schools. Most were either demoted to junior high or elementary schools or closed altogether. Treasured school identities were wiped away as school names and mascots were replaced or doors locked. This is not just a Louisiana story, but one repeated across the South.
It is time that the important story of these schools –which is one of educational excellence, determination, and community –be reclaimed and shared with the next generation. Rosenwald schools have received much attention in recent years, but these mid-twentieth century schools have not even though their history is equally, if not more important. Rosenwald schools–so called for the White philanthropist who provided funding for construction –were only constructed between 1917 and 1932. That is but a flash in the pan of the history of African American schools and the dauntlessAfrican American educators who led them to flourish. Mid-century African American school complexes often traces their roots all the way back to educators and schools of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. They are places that truly have the embodied energy of the stories of ancestors. Further, in comparison to the small, one to seven-teacher Rosenwald schools, which are typically wood frame, the mid-century complexes have much greater potential for adaptive reuse because of their substantial size and concrete and masonry construction. Most of the surviving and vacant school plants are in small towns or rural communities that do not have the built spaces these revitalized school plants could offer.
Today, many of the alumni from the last classes to attend historic African American high schools are reaching retirement age and would like to make the important spaces of the youth vibrant centers of their communities once again. It is these and other community stakeholders that this project seeks to serve by providing an easy to access resource for understanding the needs, challenges, and potential of these built resources. Within these restored walls, future generations could walk in the footsteps of their forebears and regain community pride in these properties, while having places to engage in twenty-first-century life and learning.
Although this project is based in Louisiana, it applies across the South where either an informal or formalized school equalization plan produced and subsequently abandoned modern African American school plants. These are places where interpretation of history must be woven into the building renovation along with new design retrofits to serve the dual purposes of enhancing cultural memory and present-day living.
Andrew Liles, AIA and I served as leads and content coordinators for this project, however it is really the fruit of the vision of many people. It has its origins in 2011 when I was researching two historic contexts for the Louisiana Division of Historic Preservation National Register program, the African American Experience in Louisiana and Education in Louisiana. Almost simultaneously I came across the story of John S. Dawson High School in West Feliciana Parish and I met Donna Isaacs in Natchitoches Parish. From the story of John S. Dawson High School, I learned about the history of segregated schools constructed around the time of and after Brown v. Board of Education, and their closure or reassignment not many years later during desegregation. Donna Isaacs drove me around Natchitoches Parish and showed me three schools that shared this story. With her combined expertise in sustainable building and passion for the Black history of Natchitoches Parish, she saw the tragedy of these historic places left vacant or underutilized and the great potential for their revitalization. Donna planted a seed in my head. A few years later, I received a call from Dr. Henry Hardy about writing a National Register nomination for John S. Dawson High School. I learned from Dr. Hardy and other Dawson alumni about the history of their school and dreams of rehabilitation. Dr. Hardy also shared the greater vision of having the restored John S. Dawson High School be amodel and catalyst for the successful revitalization of other schools throughout the state. Between both of these visionaries, it was clear that the preservation of Louisiana’s historic African American high schools could and should be something big and statewide. Others have added to this story and this vision, especially Doug Sapp for Arcadia Colored High School in Bienville Parish, Dr. Antoinette Harrel for Big Zion in Tangipahoa Parish, and most recently, Sandra Garner Coleman and Connie Levo Howard for Sabine High School in Sabine Parish.
In the meantime, I have gotten to meet or otherwise come across the work of people in other states who are collecting the histories of and working to preserve mid-century Black schools across the South. This demonstrating that there is critical work to be done across the entire region. Rebekah Dobrasko coined the term equalization schools with her comprehensive work on South Carolina and brought her work with her to Texas where she has chronicled the L.C. Anderson High School. Dorothy Walker has worked on documenting schools across Alabama and Steven Moffson has written the history of equalization schools of Georgia. Kenneth Groomes and Dr. Russell Hill created an entire website africanamericanhighschoolsinlouisianabefore1970.com. Glenn Vaulx is developing an archive for school histories in Tennessee. And efforts in Virginia garnered coverage in The Washington Post with the title, “Historically Black High Schools in Virginia Face Possible Extinction: Alumni across the South lead push to remember, preserve those legacies.” As the 2010s progressed, there seemedto be a groundwell of interest in the preservation of mid-centuryAfrican American schools. As I received morecalls and emails from alumni of other schools interested in rehabilitation projects, it became apparent that there was a widespread need for information on all aspects of the saving and reviving these historic places.It is that need, which this project aims to address.
Project Origins and AcknowledgementsScope
In order to raise awareness about these languishing cultural facilities, this project began with identifying as many as possible of the surviving mid-century African American school buildings in Louisiana. This research was based on the foundation of the website africanamericanshighschoolsinlouisianabefore1970.com created by Dr. Russell Hill and Mr. Ken Groomes, and the associated ArcGIS map and story map "Historic African-American High Schools of Louisiana" researched and developed by Shaun Williams as a graduate student at Louisiana State University. These resources were invaluable to creating an inventory of all school buildings still standing in Louisiana. Dr. Hill and Mr. Groomes catalogued 185 secondary schools that had been in operation before desegregation.
From that baseline of 185 schools, this project team set out to determine which were still standing and whether they were in use, vacant, or partially in use and partially vacant. The first step in the process was to precisely locate each school using historical United States Geological (USGS) topographical maps. These locations were then checked against GoogleEarth satellite and street views to determine current conditions. Through this process twenty-two definite candidates for preservation, rehabilitation, and reuse were identified. Of these four were already actively working towards this goal and still more were found to have active interest from alumni in campus preservation. An additional twelve campuses were considered to be possible candidates for rehabilitation. Seventy-seven schools were found to have extant midcentury buildings still in use. Thirty schools were determined to have been demolished. Thus of the 185 schools identified by Dr. Hill and Mr. Groomes, the team was able to verify the physical condition of 131 campuses. With this survey complete, the overall design, plans, and materials of the school plants were assessed and categorized. This served as the basis for the next steps of identifying potential reuse schemes and applicable case studies from other states. Although the first reuse goal for many stakeholders is community centers and places for community youth, all possible options for reuse are being evaluated to find synergies of use that will best serve the long time community residents and be practical and economically sustainable. It is essential for long-term viability that new uses and designs be as flexible as possible to accommodate multiplicity and change of needs of their specific communities. As the COVID-19 pandemic taught us all, we truly do not know how the way we work and socialize might change overnight.
The final product, which is planned for completion in fall 2022, will be a handbook for mid-century school building revival projects. It is intended as a resource for anyone attempting to navigate a school preservation endeavor. This guide is arranged in ten chapters with a question and answer format, side bars, and case studies.