African American Schools in Breckinridge County, KY
Between 1866 and 1870, there were at least two Freemen Schools in Breckinridge County, one in Cloverport and one in Hardinsburg [see the NKAA entry Freedmen Schools, Kentucky]. In 1867, a Colored School in Breckinridge County was burned on December 24 [source: Index to Miscellaneous Documents of the Senate of the United States, 1871, p.49]. In 1880, Stark Bradford was the school teacher in Hardinsburg; W. H. Talbot was the teacher in Bewleyville; and Ada Willis was the teacher in Stephensport [source: U.S. Federal Census].
From 1895-97, there were 14 colored schools in Breckinridge County and all were in session for 5 months [source: Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1895-97, pp.248-252]. The average attendance was 339 students for both school terms, and they were taught by 16 teachers. By 1907 there were eleven colored schools reported by the school superintendent, Joel H. Pile [source: Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1905-1907, p.99]. Included in the list below are the county schools that existed in 1909 and 1910 [source: "County Board of Education," The Breckinridge News, 01/27/1909, p.3; and "Governor Willson...," The Breckinridge News, 03/02/1910, p.5].
The Class 3 colored high school was located in Hardinsburg in 1925, W. C. Jackson was principal, and the school had 1 teacher and 10 students [source: Kentucky Public School Directory, 1925-26, p.40]. In 1933, Breckinridge County student Nora A. Poole came in 10th place at the spelling contest directed by G. H. Brown of Louisville during the Kentucky Negro Educational Association Conference [source: "Fifth General Session," Kentucky Negro Educational Association Journal, 1933, vol.4, issue 1, pp.8-9].
In 1940, the Negro teachers in Breckinridge County were Hazel Beard in Hardinsburg, and Chester Luney, Jens E. Miller, and Orlie Scoth in Irvington [source: U.S. Federal Census]. The first schools to be listed as "integrated and white" in the Kentucky Public School Directory, 1956-57, p.422, were Breckinridge County High School and Irvington School, both for whites.
- Colored Schools (14)
- Stephensport School
- Bewleyville School
- Cloverport School
- Cloverport Freedmen School
- Colored Graded School (city)
- Colored Normal School
- Garfield School
- Gleandeane School
- Hardinsburg Freedmen School
- Hardinsburg School
- Irvington School
- McQuady School
- National Home Finding Society for Colored Children, School/Orphanage (1923-1950)
- Robards School