Former students of Patrick Central School, a segregated institution that served African American children in Patrick County, are raising funds to create a Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) historical highway marker honoring the school.
Patrick Central School operated from 1952 until 1966, when desegregation took place. During its 14 years, about 600 students attended the school. Fourteen teachers and three principals also worked there.
Mary Sawyers, who is leading the fundraising effort, said she felt called to pursue the marker.
“Immediately it seemed everything just started falling into place,” she said.
At its March 10 meeting, the Patrick County Board of Supervisors approved supporting the application for a VDOT historical marker. Several former students spoke about the impact Patrick Central School had on them and their support for the marker.
Sawyers said the marker will cost $3,000, and the application to VDOT is due by May 1.
While VDOT will have the final say on the text, the proposed inscription states:
“Patrick Central School opened in 1952 to provide public education for all African American students in Patrick County, first grade to twelfth grade. Prior to 1952, education for African American children ended at seventh grade and was provided in one- or two-room buildings or churches throughout Patrick County. The opening of Patrick Central brought together approximately 600 students, teachers, and administrative staff determined to make the new experience unforgettable for the students. For the first time in the education of African American students in Patrick County, students could participate in organized sports and other school-based organizations. The consolidation was a source of cohesiveness and a strong sense of pride among students and teachers. However, 14 years later, following the Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 and the desegregation of public schools in Patrick County, Patrick Central School closed in 1966. Today, for alumni, its structure still evokes feelings of pride, sadness, success, and disappointment, but also hope that future generations of African American children will always have a reminder of this history.”
Memories of Patrick Central
While Sawyers never attended Patrick Central School herself, eight of her siblings did.
“The contribution of African American educators and Patrick Central students has always kept my interest. I have done three or four of their school reunions, and I manage the Facebook page, so I just loved that school. I missed it by one year—schools integrated one year before I started. So I really hate that I didn’t attend at least one year to experience that,” she said.
Gloria Conner Barber, a 1962 graduate, started at Patrick Central in the fifth grade.
She said the education she and other students received was communication-based, with students able to write and read in cursive by the time they entered fifth grade.
“Kids can’t do that now. That’s why I think it’s important that we have a historical marker so that they will know that the Afro-Americans have come a long way in Patrick County. Out of that school we had doctors, we had lawyers, we had teachers, we had one that done all the autopsies in North Carolina, we had historians—we had good people turned out of that school,” Barber said.
She recalled that when it snowed, students did not stay home. Instead, they put on their boots, bus drivers put chains on their tires, and school continued as usual.
“I can remember times when we wouldn’t have water at the school for a couple of weeks at a time. Our parents packed our lunch and packed us a quart of water in a quart jar—we thought that was the most exciting thing in the world,” she said.
More Than Academics
In addition to the standard curriculum, Barber said students learned home economics skills such as cooking and sewing.
Male students also learned woodworking in the agriculture building across the yard from the school.
By eighth or ninth grade, students were allowed to help in the lunchroom by washing dishes and serving meals.
“That was a treat. We loved doing that ’cause we felt important,” she said.
Barber said May Day was a major event at the school, with students spending the entire day outside.
“They had this pole you wrapped this paper around, and they played all these games, and it was just good, clean fun,” she said.
Another special occasion was the prom, which students helped decorate. Since the gym served as the venue for prom, basketball games, and the school cafeteria, Barber said that one room “was used for everything.”
How to Help
Those interested in donating to help fund the marker are asked to mail checks to Sawyers at
340 North Franklin Road, Mt. Airy, N.C. 27030
For more information, visit Facebook.com/PatrickCentralSchool-Stuart,Va.
