A3 - Segregated Schools (1865-1945)

In 1864, the Kentucky legislature established segregated[1] educational institution, funded from all taxes collected from black taxpayers.  The county sheriff collected the taxes paid by black taxpayers and deposited the funds into a separate “Negro School Fund.”  The fund was managed by a Treasurer, was appointed by the county judge.  Thomas Mitchell, a Lexington banker, was appointed as the treasurer, who divided the funds between the segregated schools and “black paupers.”[i]  These disbursements were:

In 1866, Rev. Fredrick Braxton opened the first colored school in Lexington.  Classes were held in the “Ladies Hall,” at the Methodist Church on Main and Church Streets.  Over 300 students were enrolled.[ii]  The building was purchased with fund raised by black women, who spent the last year raising funds for the purpose.  In 1866, the Freedman’s Bureau became involved in the new school building.  The school was named the Howard School, after General O. O. Howard, director of the Freedman’s Bureau.  The school was supported Freedman’s Bureau, the American Missionary Association of New York[2] (“AMA”) and the Lexington Negro Public School Fund.  The AMA provided white teachers from the north.  The local newspaper indicated its support for the schools, but was critical of the teachers[3] from a Northern missionary society.[iii]

By 1868, enrollment increased to 900 students, with classrooms located in the First Baptist Church, Pleasant Green Baptist Church, Main Street Baptist Church and Christian Church.

In September 1868, the “Society for Education of Colored People” petitioned the city council for an appropriation to purchase a second schoolhouse.  The council appropriated $500 from the Negro Fund to the “Society of Education” for a new school on Corral Street.[iv]  During April 1868, the “Trustees of the Colored Schools” began a campaign to raise additional funds for the new school.  The trustees were Rev. James Turner, Henry Scroggins, George Scroggins, R. R. Wells and John Williams.  The trustees indicated that there were over 1,300 potential students in Lexington.[v]

In 1871, the Corral Street School opened, in a frame house with 4 classrooms and 93 students from the Howard School.[vi]  In addition, around 1871 the Fourth Street School (with two classrooms) was opened.

In 1872, Rev. James Turner led an effort to have the segregated schools fully funded by the city of Lexington.  Turner reported “the black community alone could not fund teacher’s salaries and property mortgages.”  The city council agreed to release $750 from the white school fund to pay off the mortgage on the Fourth Street School.  In addition, the council appropriated $600 from the capitalization fund and promised one-half of the 1872 railroad taxes for the segregated schools.

In September 1873, the city council appointed a special committee to discuss “the subject of an appropriation by the Council for the colored schools of a portion of the school fund of the city of Lexington.”  The mayor appointed Madison C. Johnson, W. C. P. Breckinridge and James M. Graves.[vii]

In January 1874, the city agreed to pay the salary of teachers, if the advisory board raised the funds to pay for school supplies, heating and other operating costs of the segregated schools.  The principal’s salary was set at $40 per month and teacher’s salary at $35.  There were three schools at the time, Corral Street School (with four classrooms), Fourth Street School (with two classrooms) and Church Street School (Ladies Hall – with two classrooms).  Each classroom could accommodate 40 to 60 pupils.  See Appendix B – Report on Colored Schools.  [viii]

In March 1874, the Pleasant Green School opened on Lower and Maxwell Streets.  The school was housed in the basement of the Pleasant Green Baptist Church.[ix]

In May 1874, black attendance of 457 was reported.[x]  In August 1875, the city council appropriated a per capita of $0.30 for black students, compared to $1.90 for white students.[xi]  On September 2, 1875, the first supervisor of Negro Schools was appointed.  He reported to the city’s superintendent.[xii]

In 1882, the Church Street School reported 325 students attending.  This school closed the same year.[xiii]

In 1883, the city had three segregated schools – the Corral Street, Pleasant Green and Fourth Street Schools.  In January 1883, the new Constitution School opened with 100 pupils.[xiv]

In June 1883, the Pleasant Green School was relocated on Patterson Street, adjacent to the Southern Railroad tracks.  The name was changed to Patterson School.  The new school was a two-story brick building with seven classrooms, for grades 1 through 7.  Classes had to be suspended when trains rolled by.  Heating was supplied by pot-belied stoves in each classroom.[xv]

In August 1888, the city school system completed construction on the larger Fourth Street School, near Transylvania University, on Upper and Fifth Streets.  The building was constructed of brick, with eight classrooms.  The new school cost $7,500.[xvi]

In 1890, Green P. Russell[4] was appointed principal of the Fourth Street School.  Russell converted the Fourth Street School to include the Colored High School, the only high school in the state for black students.  He later became the supervisor for all the segregated schools in the city.

In 1892, the segregated schools were Fourth Street, Constitution and Patterson.

In 1895, the Fourth Street School was renamed after Green P. Russell.  The mayor stated the naming was “a deserved compliment to the present principal of that school on account of his splendid service and for his great work in promoting the educational interest of the colored race in this city.”[xvii]

In 1901, the board refused to reappoint Russell and twelve other teachers.  Russell had often conflicted over primary education vs. manual training for black students, especially the funding for manual training.  Russell included manual training during the 1900 session of school.  At one time, Russell had filed suit against the school board for “back pay.”  However, the board later reversed its decision and rehired Russell.  In September 1904, Russell reported total enrollment of 1,282 students in the segregated schools.[xviii]

In 1903, a new Constitution School was built on the same site, with 12 classrooms and a principal’s office.  The school cost $11,922.45.[xix]

In September 1907, the school board opened the Forest Hill School (Colored School No. 4), located on College Street, between Georgetown and Newtown Pikes.  The school was in a rented building with five rooms, heated with a fireplace in every room.  The school offered grades 1 to 5.[xx]

During the fall term of 1911, the city schools established a penny lunch for the segregated schools.[xxi]

During 1915, a new high school was built on the site of the Forest Hill School.  The high school was named the Russell High School, after Green P. Russell.[xxii]  In 1916, the old Fourth Street School (name was changed from Russell School in 1915) was closed and replaced by the Booker T. Washington School on Georgetown Road.

William H. Fouse

In 1921, William H. Fouse[5], principal of Russell High School, obtained approval from the Lexington Board of Education, to build a new high school for black students.  In 1923, the new Durbar High School was completed to replace the old Russell High School.  The new school was named after Paul Lawrence Dunbar, a famous black poet.  Fouse became Dunbar’s principal.  In his first annual report, he stated:

“This building marks a new epoch in the educational history of the colored people of Lexington since we are now using the 6-3-3 plan of organization .  . . . used in no other colored school in the state of Kentucky”[xxiii]

Dunbar became the first black high school in Kentucky to be accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools.

Dunbar High School

[1] In 1866, the Kentucky legislature passed segregation laws, that required all public schools be separated by race.  During 1894, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation was legal, with their “separate but equal” ruling.  In 1904, the legislature passed the Day Law, which required segregation of all schools, including private schools.

[2] In 1890, the American Missionary Association founded the Chandler Normal School on Georgetown Road, to provide secondary segregated education.  The $15,000 funding was supplied by Phebe Chandler, a northern philanthropist.  In 1914, Webster Hall was added to expand enrollment.  The school closed in 1923.

[3] It has been taught by teachers – one male and several females we believe – sent here from the North and paid in large part by some Northern society.  .  .  But cannot some means be devised by which these negro schools can be taught by persons, who are not strangers to our habits, customs and civilizations . . .  If the minds of the negro children are poisoned and inflamed against the whites, the education given them fits them only for their own destruction and great injury. . . .  people interest in these schools, after consultation, devise some means by which these schools may be place under the control of competent teachers.

[4] Green P. Russell was born in Logan County, Kentucky.  He graduated from Berea College and assumed a teaching position at the Chilesburg Colored School.  In 1890, he was appointed principal of the Fourth Street School.  He was also appointed Supervisor of segregated schools, holding both positions at the same time.  In 1912, Russell became President of Kentucky Normal and Industrial School for Colored People (now Kentucky State University), at Frankfort.  He served until 1923 and then from 1924 to 1929.  He was an advocate for black education.

[5] William H. Fouse was born in Westerville, Ohio in 1868.  In 1884, he became the first black to graduate from the high school in Westerville.  In 1893, he was also the first black to graduate from Otterbein College.  He began his educational career as a founder of the Corydon High School, in Indiana.  In 1904, he became the principal of Lincoln School in Gallipolis, Ohio and in 1908 the principal of William Grant High School, in Covington, Kentucky.  In 1913, he became the principal of the Russell High School and supervisor for “Negro Schools” in Lexington.  In 1923, he became the principal of Dunbar High School, serving until his retirement in 1938.

[i] Lexington Daily Press, June 24, 1871, page 4, column 2.

[ii] Lexington Observer & Reporter, June 26, 1867, page 3, column 2 and October 2, 1867, page 3, column 3.

[iii] Lexington Observer & Reporter, June 26, 1867, page 3, column 2.

[iv] Lexington Observer & Reporter, September 12, 1868, page 3, column 4.

[v] Lexington Observer & Reporter, April 17, 1869, page 3, column 4.

[vi] Lexington Herald-Leader, November 5, 1972, page 5, columns 3-5.

[vii] Lexington Daily Press, September 22, 1873, page 4, column 2.

[viii] Lucas, Marion B., A Black History of Kentucky, University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, 1992, page 248 and Lexington Press, January 4, 1874, page 4, column 4.

[ix] Lexington Herald-Leader, November 5, 1972, page 5, columns 3-5.

[x] Lexington Press, May 8, 1874, page 1, column 3.

[xi] Lexington Press, August 12, 1875, page 2, column 2.

[xii] Kelly, page 67.

[xiii] Lexington Transcript, November 18, 1882, page 1, column 1.

[xiv] Lexington Transcript, January 8, 1883, page 1, column 2.

[xv] Lexington Herald-Leader, November 5, 1972, page 5, columns 3-5.

[xvi] Lexington Leader, August 2, 1888, page 4, column 3 and August 17, 1888, page 4, column 3.

[xvii] Lexington Press Transcript, April 5, 1895, page 4, column 3.

[xviii] Lexington Leader, June 5, 1901, page 5, column 3-4 and September 7, 1904, page 3, column 3.

[xix] Minute Book, Board of Education of the Lexington City Council, 1901-1908, July 16, 1903, page29 and Lexington Herald-Leader, November 5, 1972, page 5, columns 3-5.

[xx] Lexington Leader, September 1, 1907, page 18, column 4 and April 24, 1909, page 2, column 1.

[xxi] Lexington Leader, September 24, 1911, page 1, column 6.

[xxii] Lexington Herald, July 9, 1915, page 16, column 3.

[xxiii] Wright, page 175.