African American Schools in Mt. Sterling and Montgomery County, KY
Start Year : 1866
End Year : 1964
Between 1866-1870, there were two schools supported by the U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands [see NKAA entry Freedmen Schools, Kentucky]. The first school for Colored children in Montgomery County was thought to be established in 1881 with Mrs. Anna Thompson as the teacher, according to Montgomery County Kentucky Bicentennial, 1774-1974, by S. A. Harris. The school was held in a one-room building located at the corner of Queen and Locust Streets, the present location of Keas Tabernacle CME Church. The early colored schools in Montgomery County were mentioned in the 1886 Report of the Superintendent. The first commencement of the Mt. Sterling Colored School was held in 1891, and Professor J. S. Estill had completed his first year as principal of the school. In 1892, J. Green Trimble offered a lot on his farm for a colored church, and he also offered for sale, at the lowest price, a lot for a colored high school [source: "Highland Park," Mt. Sterling Advocate, 07/05/1892, p. 4]. In 1899, Professor Estill presented diplomas to the graduates during the commencement exercises at the court house [source: "Colored School commencement," Mt. Sterling Advocate, 05/09/1899, p. 3]. It was reported in the Mt. Sterling Advocate, 09/04/1900, p. 7, that there were no colored county schools in Montgomery County, "as there are not exceeding ten colored children of school age in the county." This wasn't exactly true; according to the 1900 U.S. Federal Census, in Montgomery County, KY (including Mt. Sterling) there were at least 891 Blacks who were 10 to 20 years old. In 1914, the Colored Moonlight School held classes in the Mt. Sterling Colored School: there were 75 students, the most at any one Moonlight School in Montgomery County [source: "Moonlight schools," Mt. Sterling Advocate, 09/09/1914, p. 1]. In 1915, Cora W. Stewart reported that the Mt. Sterling Colored Moonlight School was one of the best for Negroes [source: Cora Wilson Stewart and Kentucky's Moonlight Schools, by Y. H. Baldwin]. In 1918, the Mt. Sterling Colored School principal was Prof. George W. Adams, who had come to the school in 1914. At the end of the school year in 1915, the school had the first grammar school commencement [sources: Mt. Sterling Advocate, 10/01/1918, "The School children of the city...," p. 1, and "A Nice compliment," p. 2; and "Commencement exercises of colored school," 06/02/1915, p. 1]. The previous principal, Professor Estill, had left in 1914 for a teaching position at the Colored Normal School [today Kentucky State University]; his replacement was Prof. George W. Adams, who came from the Glendale Reform School in Lexington [source: "Goes to Frankfort," Mt. Sterling Advocate, 10/14/1914, p. 5]. Professor Adams resigned in 1918 to take a position with the National Benefit Life Insurance Company in Washington, D.C. and was replaced by Mrs. Robert [Cathryn] Gatewood [source: "Colored principal resigns," Mt. Sterling Advocate, 01/29/1918, p. 4]. Prof. George W. Adams was back in 1919, serving as superintendent of the Mt. Sterling colored schools [source: "Colored commencement," Mt. Sterling Advocate, 05/20/1919, p. 9]. Professor Adams return coincided with the organizing of the colored county school system in Montgomery County, one of whose schools was named Prewitt School, mentioned under the heading "Prewitt Descendants" on p. 25 in Montgomery County Kentucky Bicentennial, 1774-1974, by S. A. Harris. In the fall of 1919, plans were made for the construction of the Colored Training School to serve Mt. Sterling and Montgomery County [source: "The Right spirit," Mt. Sterling Advocate, 09/09/1919, p. 5]. J. W. Muir was the Mt. Sterling Colored School principal in 1922, and the new teachers were Miss Barnes, Miss Coons, and Miss Keller [source: "Teachers selected for city schools," Mt. Sterling Advocate, 06/08/1922, p. 1]. In 1930, there were two high schools: Montgomery County Colored School and Mt. Sterling Colored School [source: "Colored high schools--Kentucky, 1930-31," Kentucky Negro Educational Association Journal, vol. 1, issue 1, pp. 23-24]. The two high schools were consolidated in 1952, and in 1964 the schools in Montgomery County were integrated after DuBois High School was burned down. For more on the history of the colored schools in Mt. Sterling and Montgomery County, see the "Schools - 1881-1964" on pp. 17-18 in Montgomery County Kentucky Bicentennial, 1774-1974, by S. A. Harris.

• Colored School (1881)
• DuBois School (built in 1939)
• Montgomery County High School
• Moonlight School
• Mt. Sterling American Missionary Association School supported by the Bureau
• Mt. Sterling Freedmen School
• Mt. Sterling School
• Mt. Sterling High School
• Prewitt School
• Training School of Mt. Sterling and Montgomery County

  See photo image of the Montgomery County Training School on p. 32 of Rosenwald Schools in Kentucky, 1917-1932.
Subjects: Education and Educators, Grade Schools & High Schools in Kentucky, African American Schools in Kentucky (Counties A-Z)
Geographic Region: Mount Sterling, Montgomery County, Kentucky