"We Cannot Walk Alone:" Images and History of the African-American Community.
Lafayette County, Mississippi. An "Open Doors Exhibition." April through August 2003.

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Education
Author of History Unknown

“After the Civil War, the first school in Oxford [for African-Americans] was started in 1867 under the Freedmen’s Bureau and taught by Alexander Phillips, an African-American preacher. The school was held five days a week from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Studies included grammar, arithmetic, geography, spelling, reading, and writing. Mr. Borrum also tried to start a school about ten miles west of Oxford but it was immediately burned.Later several churches created schools such as the Second Baptist Church School taught by H.W. Bowen. Public education began with the Oxford Colored High School founded in 1882 and located in Freemantown, although this school burned. At the turn of the century, Walter Johnson with his wife Dovie Evelyn Wilburn Johnson created a private elementary school on North 7th Street [now Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. ] called Del Mount Seminary. In the rural areas of the country, African-American one room schools were built every three miles, approximately 46 schools were created including Dallas, Harrisonville, Oliver, Rush, East Providence, and Galilee to name a few. Sometimes these schools were held in local churches until a building was constructed. Many young African-American teachers in Oxford had their first teaching experience in these schools boarding with local parents, earning about $22.00 a month.
Education, page two





 

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