Booker T. Washington Elementary School and Segregated Education in Virginia
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Booker T Elementary School Cover.qxp 7/17/2007 6:52 AM Page 1 National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior History Program Northeast Region BOOKER T. WASHINGTON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AND SEGREGATED EDUCATION IN VIRGINIA BOOKER T. WASHINGTON NATIONAL MONUMENT HISTORIC RESOURCE STUDY BOOKER T. WASHINGTON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL and SEGREGATED EDUCATION IN VIRGINIA Historic Resource Study Booker T. Washington National Monument Scot A. French Craig Barton Peter Flora Prepared under cooperative agreement with the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies, University of Virginia National Park Service U. S. Department of the Interior Printed June 2007 Cover illustration: Students of all grades gathered in assembly in Mr. Holmes’ room, the school’s largest classroom and library. Courtesy of Gloris Taylor, Booker T. Washington School alumnus. Table of Contents Document Approval Page.............................................................................................. iii List of Illustrations.............................................................................................. vii Foreword.......................................................................................................................... ix Acknowledgements .............................................................................................xi I. Scope and Methodology ....................................................................................1 II. Historical Data Section ....................................................................................5 III. Architectural Data Section ............................................................................ 61 Appendix: Design and Construction Drawings ........................................................ 91 Bibliography ..................................................................................................... 105 v List of Illustrations Classroom #1 Eastern Wall (1 photo).................................................................................................. 67 Southern Wall (2 photos) ............................................................................................. 68 Northern Wall (2 photos) ............................................................................... 68 Ceiling (1 photo)............................................................................................................ 69 Classroom #2 Eastern Wall (1 photo).................................................................................................. 70 Western Wall (1 photo) ................................................................................................ 70 Southern Wall (3 photos) ............................................................................................. 71 Northern Wall (1 photo) .............................................................................................. 71 Floor (1 photo)............................................................................................................... 71 Classroom #3 Eastern Wall (1 photo).................................................................................................. 72 Western Wall (1 photo) ................................................................................................ 73 Southern Wall (1 photo)............................................................................................... 73 Northern Wall (2 photos) ............................................................................................ 73 Ceiling (1 photo)............................................................................................................ 74 Kitchen Western Wall (2 photos)............................................................................................... 75 Southern Wall (1 photo)............................................................................................... 75 Northern Wall (1 photo) .............................................................................................. 75 Floor (1 photo)............................................................................................................... 76 Principal’s Office Western Wall (1 photo) ................................................................................................ 77 Southern Wall (1 photo)............................................................................................... 77 Northern Wall (2 photos) ............................................................................................ 78 Floor (1 photo)............................................................................................................... 78 vii Girl’s Rest Room Eastern Wall (1 photo).................................................................................................. 79 Southern Wall (1 photo)............................................................................................... 80 Northern Wall (1 photo) .............................................................................................. 80 Floor (1 photo)............................................................................................................... 81 Boy’s Rest Room Southern Wall (2 photos) ............................................................................................. 82 Northern Wall (1 photo) .............................................................................................. 83 Ceiling (1 photo)............................................................................................................ 83 Public Corridor Walls (7 photos)............................................................................................................. 84 Ceiling (1 photo)............................................................................................................ 85 Floor (1 photo)............................................................................................................... 85 Millwork and Equipment (1 photo) ........................................................................... 85 Boiler Room/Fuel Room/Pump and Tank Room Miscellaneous Interiors (8 photos)............................................................................. 86 Exterior Building Envelope Miscellaneous Exteriors (13 photos).......................................................................... 89 Design and Construction Drawings Floor Plan ....................................................................................................................... 91 Finish Schedules ............................................................................................................ 92 Site Plan........................................................................................................................... 93 Wall Section.................................................................................................................... 94 East Elevation................................................................................................................. 95 West Elevation ............................................................................................................... 96 North Elevation ............................................................................................................. 97 South Elevation.............................................................................................................. 98 Door Detail – Exterior .................................................................................................. 99 Door Detail – Interior ................................................................................................. 100 Equipment Plan – Overview....................................................................................... 101 Equipment Plan – Detail............................................................................................. 102 Window Detail............................................................................................................. 104 viii Foreword Booker T. Washington National Monument, located in Franklin County, Virginia, is preserved in public ownership as the birthplace and childhood home of Booker T. Washington, a slave who became a prominent educator and influential African- American leader in the period between 1895 and 1915. Developed in the 1940s as a private memorial and added as a unit of the National Park System in 1956, the site’s early history as a memorial is itself a subject of interest and importance. In 1952 the trustees of the Booker T. Washington Birthplace Memorial donated to the Franklin County School Board six acres of land which had been part of the Burroughs Plantation. The donation was for construction of one of the county’s last segregated schools for black children, thereby fulfilling one of the memorial’s goals, “to plan for the erection of a consolidated elementary school for Negro children.” The school, designed to at least partially “equalize” facilities for blacks with those traditionally provided for whites, opened in September 1954, four months after the U.S. Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education found the “separate but equal” doctrine as applied to public education to be unconstitutional. The school continued to operate—as a segregated facility—until the School Board’s Freedom of Choice initiative in 1966 led to the transfer of black students into formerly all-white schools. The four-room