Clockwise from window: Rural Hill one-room schoolhouse, circa 1890; Alexander Street School; McClintock Rosenwald; York Road High; group at Second Ward High. All the schools were built in the era of segregation. Rural Hill served whites; the rest of the schools served blacks until desegregation.

Feb. 25, 2014

For Black History Month, Forum participants suggested a session on some of the history of K-12 education in Mecklenburg County. Speakers were Arthur Griffin, longtime education advocate and former chair of the CMS Board of Education; Richard McElrath, former District 2 member of the board; and Sarah Stevenson, an at-large member of the board from 1980-1988.

Griffin gave his portion of the presentation the title used above. He passed out an excerpt from the Journal of the 1868 N.C. Constitutional Convention detailing the convention's adoption of the report of the Committee on Education creating public schools, but only after approving an amendment requiring the General Assembly to "provide seperate and distinct schools, for the black children of the State, from those provided for white children" and then rejecting an amendment that the separate schools be equal in quality.

The speakers' introductory comments were followed by a Q&A.

 

 

Part 1

 

 

Part 2

 

Part 3

 

Q&A part 1

 

Q&A part 2