Founded: 1917

Erected: 1918

Those dates are historic because they represent one of the earliest and most impressive ventures in rural public education in southwest Alabama. When World War I ended in 1918, there were few public high schools for Blacks in rural Alabama, which were supported, even token, by local boards of education. For the most part, the Black high school that existed in rural Alabama was private academies. These academies often had boarding departments that were supported exclusively by church denominations and gifts from private donors who set up various educational funds to assist Negro education.

Records indicate that it was probably Mr. Nelson Edward Henry, Sr. of the China Community who approached Mr. Clinton J. Halloway, Director of the Rosenwald Fund Headquarters at the Tuskegee Institute. Mr. Halloway, on

Black men such as Sim Brown, Dan Dowell, and Ed Nearer were influential in drumming up Black support. The women of the churches sold dinners, fried fish and sold baked goods to contribute towards raising the one-third of the required matching money. Mrs. Leftie Royster, one of the most active women in the PTA, worked to support this drive. In a matter of months, Conecuh County’s Black population had raised their fair share. Transactions were made immediately to begin work on the new school. Mr. Reynolds, who lived in the big house on Cary Street and Reynolds Avenue, donated eight acres of the land for the school site. In 1918, construction of the Conecuh County Training School began. In charge was an all Black labor crew of about five or six men who were supervised by a Mr. Todd, a Brewton native, and the lead brick mason. And so with Sears and Roebuck’s money (The Rosenwald Fund), and contributions from both Black and White people of Conecuh County, one of the first Black rural public high schools in Alabama was completed.