Helen Meadows breaks out in a broad smile when she thinks about the years she spent at Jonesboro Colored School in Clayton County in the 1950s and 1960s.
She remembers the time the school’s furnace went out and students had to carry chairs to a nearby elementary school building. She remembers her classmates begging high schoolers waiting for the school bus to get them candy at a cafe across the street.
But mostly, she remembers the bond between teachers and students at the segregated school.
“I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” Meadows, 74, said of the school. “Our teachers were like parents. They were about the whole person. They knew what we needed. I can remember all my teachers’ names because that’s how personal they were.”
Clayton County Public Schools is hoping to create a new memory of the school for Meadows: witnessing its restoration.
The building was designated a historic property by the Jonesboro City Council in 2022 and will become part museum and part community center when the work is completed, school district leaders said.
“We want to make sure that homeowners associations, retired educators, anybody with a small group who desires to meet and have their meeting in a nice environment will have the opportunity to do that right here in this building,” Clayton Schools Superintendent Anthony Smith said during a recent Wednesday groundbreaking ceremony for the restoration.
A new beginning
The district in February approved plans to spend $3.34 million to revitalize Jonesboro Colored in an effort to recognize its historical significance as one of the few remaining Rosenwald Schools left standing in Georgia.
Rosenwald Schools were a collaboration between Jewish philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, the president of retail giant Sears, and noted African American educator Booker T. Washington. The pair launched the schools in 1913 to improve access to education for Southern Blacks at a time when they were not admitted to schools with white students.
In all, some 5,000 Rosenwald Schools were opened through 1932 in 15 Southern states from Maryland to Texas. Many of the schools closed over the years after the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling paved the way for the nation’s classrooms to become desegregated.
More than 240 Rosenwald Schools were constructed in Georgia, and several have been restored or identified over the last 20 years, including Noble Hill School, now known as the Noble Hill-Wheeler Memorial Center in Cassville, the Eleanor Roosevelt School in Warm Springs, the Hiram School in Paulding County and the Friendship School in Chattahoochee County.
Built in 1931, Jonesboro Colored — which the school system today calls “the Rosenwald School” — consisted of up to four rooms, according to Meadows, and was made of red brick (it was later painted white) with radiators for heat and separate bathrooms for boys and girls, which was uncommon in a small building its size, former students and Clayton officials said.
The renovations will include installing a new roof and HVAC system and adding office space, lighting, restroom fixtures, doors, landscaping and signage.
Credit: NATRICE MILLER
Credit: NATRICE MILLER
‘It’s filled with memories’
For some, the effort will not only save a piece of Clayton’s history, but introduce it to those who never knew it existed.
“In the ‘80s, when I was in high school here, I did not know anything about this building,” Clayton County Commission Chairman Jeff Turner said at the ceremony. “And that’s a shame. The only way for us to know about our history ... is to know our past.”
Stanley Jennings, vice president of J.W. Robinson & Associates, the architect on the renovations, said most Rosenwald Schools were made of wood so Clayton’s version stands out as a real treasure. He said the company’s goal in renovating the building is to preserve that which makes the building unique.
“We try to identify those things within the building that have character, that makes it identifiable,” he said.
The building was at one point expanded from its original size, and plans are to keep the addition.
State Sen. Gail Davenport, D-Jonesboro, said her 97-year-old mother, Helen Dixon Davenport, attended the school and had fond memories of her time there, including winning a spelling contest one year, May Day celebrations and basketball games.
“She walked 3 miles one way every day to get an education here at this school,” the senator said at the ceremony.
Like Meadows, former Jonesboro Colored School student Bobby Joe Smith said he remembered the school’s teachers, the cohesiveness of the community and learning in a tightknit environment.
“I’m happy they are keeping it,” he said. “It’s filled with memories.”
Sarah Souder Grigley, who attended the school with Meadows, said she and others who advocated for the renovations, including Clayton Board of Education Chairwoman Jessie Goree and former Clayton County Schools Superintendent Morcease Beasley, began pushing for the preservation in 2018. They were determined not to drop the ball.
“You almost want to cry because this has been a long time coming,” she said.
