Rockville’s First Colored Schools
Rockville's African American Heritage Walking Tour
Rockville's First Colored School
246 North Washington Street
In March, 1867, twenty African Americans pledged to support a school by taking responsibility for money "as may be necessary to pay the board and washing of the teacher and provide fuel and lights for the school-house."
Education was a door to the future for former slaves. In 1872, Montgomery County began to provide public education to African American students. The elementary school was built in 1876 and accepted students in grades one through seven. The two-room school-house burned in 1919 (refer to map above) and students moved into the basement of Jerusalem M. E. Church. The school was rebuilt in 1921 on the opposite side of Washington Street.
Rockville's Second Colored School
East side of North Washington Street
The Second Rockville Colored School opened in 1921 serving grades one through seven. To continue their education students had to commute by streetcar into Washington D.C. or board with a local family.
In the mid-1920's, Noah E. Clarke and other African American parents petitioned for the County's first African American high school. In 1927, the school board voted to construct a high school in Rockville. The African American community supplied $6,700 toward construction, matching a grant from the philanthropic Rosenwald Foundation. Julius Rosenwald, President and CEO of Sears, provided matching funds to construct nearly 5,000 African American schools throughout the segregated South between 1917 and 1948.
Rockville Colored High School was located adjacent to the elementary school on North Washington Street. It was the only high school in the County for African American students. Many students had to ride for hours by bus to get to and from class. In 1934, the School Board purchased land in Lincoln Park for the new Lincoln High School.
Marker is on North Washington Street north of Beall Avenue.
Courtesy hmdb.org
