{"id":7,"featured":0,"modified":"2023-07-06 15:08:07","latitude":30.739052134478,"longitude":-88.0571468729721,"title":"Mobile County Training School","address":"","thumbnail":"https:\/\/lanternwalk.mctswhippets.org\/files\/square_thumbnails\/2f47fea5741e84b2fb4895551c6e6c20.jpg","creator":["Mobile County Training School Alumni Association"],"description":"

In 1880 it was called \u201cThe Plateau Normal and Industrial Institute for the Education the Head, Heart and Hands of the Colored Youth\u201d and held its classes at the Old Landmark Church (now called Union Baptist Church<\/a>). Eighteen years later, it relocated to a one-room building donated by the community, and then some years after that moved again to Booman\u2019s Union Hall.<\/p>\r\n

In 1910, the school appointed its first principal, Mr. Isaiah J. Whitley<\/strong> and took on the name \u201cMobile County Training School.\u201d It was, like all institutions at the turn of the century, segregated. That term \u201ctraining\u201d was used deliberately by Alabama\u2019s officials to distinguish between Black and white schools in the state.<\/p>\r\n

In 1915 a fire broke out and destroyed the school building. Yorktown Baptist Church<\/a> provided the space for students to keep attending classes. Ultimately, Principal Whitley secured the school\u2019s new home: both an industrial science building and domestic science one.<\/p>\r\n

The MCTS served as a thriving part of the Africatown community for decades. For the decades from 1911 to 1950, the school taught students from 1st grade on through high school. In parallel to Africatown\u2019s self-governance, MCTS was also student-led. The school\u2019s students were empowered to oversee student discipline. Any particular student\u2019s standing with the school would be relayed to other community-led institutions, such as the churches. It gained state accreditation from the Alabama government in 1926 and welcomed a new principal that year, Dr. Benjamin Baker. <\/strong>Eight years later, MCTS became the only Black school in the county to gain accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools.<\/p>\r\n

In 1950, the school grades were split between two schools. Whitley opened across the street that year to serve Grades 1-6; MCTS became the junior high\/high school with Grades 7-12.<\/p>\r\n

But the high acheivements of the school were greatly impacted by the federal desegregation of public schools in the period after the monumental Brown v. Board<\/em> decision of the US Supreme Court (1954). Inadvertently or not, the racial integration taking place in the 1960s chipped away at the sustainability of MCTS. Renovations and additions were made in 1967 and the 6th grade was accommodated. But just a few years later, for the 1970-71 school term, administrators completely reorganized the county's grade structure and transformed MCTS from a high school to only Grades 6-8. The dramatic change dispersed those were the current students attending; many of exemplary high school teachers were no longer needed. Increasingly, the community-centered curricula that was a hallmark of Africatown, was chipped away. Even the US Supreme Court would end up involved in Mobile County\u2019s rocky desegregation: a unanimous 9-0 decision in Davis v. Board of School Commissioners of Mobile County <\/em>(1971) ruled their plan had failed to utilize all possible remedies.<\/p>\r\n

Equally as damaging: the school\u2019s population decreased just as the population of Africatown did. At the height of its prosperity, our town was home to some 12,000 people\u2014 today, over 80% of those people are gone.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

Despite these hurdles, we have rebuilt MCTS as a pillar institution of Africatown. Our Alumni Association continues to educate young people on the irreplaceable history of this special place. Today, we welcome you<\/em>.<\/p>","sponsor":"","subtitle":"","accessinfo":"","lede":"The MCTS has a distinctive history\u2014 it was founded by the descendants of the Clotilda in 1880 as the first school for Black people in the County of Mobile.","website":"","related_resources":[],"files":{"https:\/\/lanternwalk.mctswhippets.org\/files\/fullsize\/2f47fea5741e84b2fb4895551c6e6c20.jpg":{"id":8,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","title":"Artistic rendering from a historical photo (#1)","thumbnail":"https:\/\/lanternwalk.mctswhippets.org\/files\/square_thumbnails\/2f47fea5741e84b2fb4895551c6e6c20.jpg","description":"Founded in the summer of 1880, MCTS is the oldest county training school in Alabama. "},"https:\/\/lanternwalk.mctswhippets.org\/files\/fullsize\/17ff7ca961e50d0157975b9cf6a04b72.jpg":{"id":9,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","title":"Artistic rendering from a historical photo (#2)","thumbnail":"https:\/\/lanternwalk.mctswhippets.org\/files\/square_thumbnails\/17ff7ca961e50d0157975b9cf6a04b72.jpg","description":"When the initial schoolhouse burned down, it was rebuilt with funds from the Julius Rosenwald Foundation. It is one of few Rosenwald schools still standing."},"https:\/\/lanternwalk.mctswhippets.org\/files\/fullsize\/c33620edd52b7410477e68493a8b9b6c.jpg":{"id":40,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","title":"First graduating class","thumbnail":"https:\/\/lanternwalk.mctswhippets.org\/files\/square_thumbnails\/c33620edd52b7410477e68493a8b9b6c.jpg","description":"Left to right:<\/em> Back row: Alex Reid, Jr., Georgia Wymon, Evelyn McCall, Hattie Keeby, S.L. Bradley, Jr.
Front: Flora Hauze, Iona Adams, Principal I.J. Whitley, Lola Brown, Agnes Finley | Mobile Bay Magazine, April 2022, p. 82"},"https:\/\/lanternwalk.mctswhippets.org\/files\/fullsize\/aa4bf3c67946b31f29e5b662efaf37a1.jpg":{"id":10,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","title":"Dr. Benjamin F. Baker","thumbnail":"https:\/\/lanternwalk.mctswhippets.org\/files\/square_thumbnails\/aa4bf3c67946b31f29e5b662efaf37a1.jpg","description":"Dr. Baker was the third principal of MCTS, serving from 1926-1947. He would have attended over the young graduates\u2019 Lantern Walk every year. | Unknown photographer"}}}