During the decades many school systems disdained Black students, African-American parents found creative ways to line up education. In Harford County, parents scraped together resources for a tiny primary school, then decades later worked with civic leaders and lawmakers to expand it into a high school. Retired Army Col. Patricia Smith leads the effort to restore the Havre de Grace Colored School … where Janice Grant graduated in 1951:

“There were times when only the teacher had a book. And we had to buy copy books. And the teacher would stand in front of the class and read the one book. And we would have to write it in the copy books. And that would be our books.”

Then author Philip Merrill tells about Rosenwald Schools in Maryland.

Links: The Havre de Grace Colored School Museum and Cultural Center, Education Week on preserving Rosenwald Schools, The Aegis Newspaper Janice E. Grant interview, National Trust for Historic Preservation/Rosenwald Schools.

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