The
first Negro School began in 1879. From Monroe City News,
September 1937)
The
enumeration of children of school age in the Monroe City
Special District reported March 29, 1879 included 197
white and 20 negro children. In the previous year there had
been only eleven Negro children of school age.
This
makes it necessary for us to have a Negro school in this
district this,” the report read. The law prescribing that
when there are 15 Negro children in the district of school
age, a separate school shall be provided for them.”
Green Thompson, a young Negro cripple of the community, had
been encouraged to attend school away from Monroe City with
the promise that when a Negro School was established he
would be employed as the teacher.
The
school opened in September, 1879 with fifteen children
enrolled. The classes were taught in a small one-room
building that stood on the Horace Cook lot in the Northeast
part of town. Thompson continued to serve as the teacher of
the school for more than a quarter of a century. However,
from 1897 to 1899, Thompson was unable to teach and W. W.
Wilson served in his stead.
The
Negro school was later moved.
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