Rockville's First Colored Schools

Rockville's First Colored Schools (HMT8S)

Location: Rockville, MD 20850 Montgomery County
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Country: United States of America
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N 39° 5.214', W 77° 9.202'

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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.
Details
HM NumberHMT8S
Series This marker is part of the Maryland: Rockville's African American Heritage Walking Tour series, and the Rosenwald Schools series.
Tags
Marker Number12 & 14
Placed ByCity of Rockville, Historic District Commission, Department of Community Planning and Development Services
Marker ConditionNo reports yet
Date Added Monday, September 15th, 2014 at 1:44am PDT -07:00
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Locationbig map
UTM (WGS84 Datum)18S E 313755 N 4328627
Decimal Degrees39.08690000, -77.15336667
Degrees and Decimal MinutesN 39° 5.214', W 77° 9.202'
Degrees, Minutes and Seconds39° 5' 12.84" N, 77° 9' 12.12" W
Driving DirectionsGoogle Maps
Area Code(s)240, 301, 410, 202
Closest Postal AddressAt or near 1-57 Beall Ave, Rockville MD 20850, US
Alternative Maps Google Maps, MapQuest, Bing Maps, Yahoo Maps, MSR Maps, OpenCycleMap, MyTopo Maps, OpenStreetMap

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