African American Schools in Taylor County, KY
Start Year : 1886
End Year : 1961
As early as the 1886-87 school term, there were colored schools in Taylor County, KY [source: Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1888, p.130]. In 1916, the following school teachers were listed in the Proceedings of the Kentucky Negro Educational Association, April 25-28, 1916: Fannie B. Gaddie and J. H. Gaddie, Saloma (p.28); Norian E. Harris, Campbellsville (p.29); Ethel Von Lewis, Campbellsville (p.31); C. B. Nuckolls [or Nuchols], Campbellsville (p.33); and Maxwell Philpott, Campbellsville (p.34). Mrs. G. E. Philpott taught the Colored Moonlight School in Campbellsville, beginning in 1915, with students between the ages of 18 and 55 [source: "Mrs. G. E. Philpott...," Freeman, 02/13/1915, p.3]. Robert L. Dowery conducted night school for colored soldiers at Camp Zachary Taylor during WWI. In 1937, there were seven, one room, colored, elementary schools in Taylor County, KY, according to the thesis of John Albert Jones, History of Education in Taylor County, p.77. One of the schools was in Campbellsville and in 1939 that school was replaced by the newly constructed Durham School, grades 1-12; the school received funding from the Rosenwald Fund and it housed the second high school for African Americans in Taylor County [source: Images of America: Campbellsville by DeSpain, Burch, and Hooper, p.92-93]. The earlier high school, Taylor County Industrial High School for Negroes, existed in 1922 when teacher C. B. Nuchols [or Nuckolls] left the school for a teaching job with Booker T. Washington School in Ashland, KY [see NKAA entry African American Schools in Boyd County, KY]. The Taylor County Industrial High School, located in Campbellsville, was established between 1911 and 1919, and was funded by the John F. Slater Fund [source: A History of Education in Kentucky by W. E. Ellis, p.179]. The Taylor County schools began to integrate in 1961 when basketball player Clem Haksins transferred from Durham High School to Taylor County High School. See also the unpublished manuscript [1939-1940] titled "Public Education in Taylor County (con.)" by Nelle B. Crawley, 507 Central Avenue, Campbellsville, KY., p.4, section Colored:, in the Kentucky Education Collection, Series 1, Box 25, 0000UA129, File: Taylor County Education, at the University of Kentucky Special Collections.

• Taylor County Industrial High School for Negroes
• Durham School
• Campbellsville Colored Moonlight School
• Camp Zachary Taylor Colored Night School
• Shady Grove School
• Burdick School
• Smith Ridge School
• Saloma School
• Sweenyville School
• Old Pitman School
• Pleasant Union School
• Moonlight School

Subjects: Education and Educators, Grade Schools & High Schools in Kentucky, African American Schools in Kentucky (Counties A-Z)
Geographic Region: Taylor County, Kentucky