Earliest Known Public High School for African Americans in Virgi
Petersburg, Virginia
Petersburg established a public school system in 1868, two years before the state’s mandate. Colored Elementary School #1 was conducted in the old church building of the African Baptist Church, which stood to your left. The building had been moved to this site in the 1830s from Bolling’s Hill, where it had served in the 1820s both as a church and as one of the earliest organized schools for African Americans in Petersburg. A second story was constructed within the building designed to accommodate the opening in January 1870 of a Colored high School. This was reputedly the first African-American public high school in the state. Maj. Giles B. Cooke, who acted as Lee’s staff officer during the siege of Petersburg, served as principal.
By 1874, this school had so expanded as to require the construction of a new building in the space in front of you, facing Fillmore, still accommodating both the elementary and high school. Since both schools had been funded using George Peabody Fund money, the new school was called the Peabody School. As a result of repeated petitions by the Rev. Henry Williams of Gillfield Baptist Church and others, African Americans were appointed as administrators and teachers in the African-American schools in Petersburg for the first time during the 1882-83 school year. The first of these appointments was Alfred Pryor as Principal of Peabody School.
Due to Peabody School’s growing inadequacies, the school was moved to a substantially larger new building on Jones Street in 1920. For several years the old building served as an armory, and was then demolished to make way for the new Anna Bolling Junior High School for white students, which opened in the present building in 1926. Court-ordered integration in 1971 led to the closing of Anna Bolling, which now houses apartments for the elderly.
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(Above) In 1870, the Old African Church was renovated and housed both an elementary school and the first public high school for African Americans in Virginia.
(Left) Major Giles B. Cooke, the first principal of the Number One elementary School and the Colored Public High School, 1868-1871.
(Above Right) Walter C. Holmes (1884-1963) graduated from Peabody High School in 1901. He is pictured wearing his graduation pin. His father, James Meredith Bolling Holmes (1844-1923) was the first black letter carrier in Petersburg.
Church Photo courtesy of First Baptist Church, Harrison Street. Photo of Walter C. Holmes courtesy of Nathaniel Dance. Photo of Major Cooke courtesy of Elsa Verbyla.
Marker is at the intersection of Harrison Street and Maple Lane, on the left when traveling south on Harrison Street.
Courtesy hmdb.org
