Greensville County Training School

Greensville County Training School. Emporia, Virginia. , The Greensville County Training School (GCTS) began sometime before 1912 as a small wood-frame building and went on to contribute to African American education in Emporia for more than 50 years. An addition in 1929 resulted in GCTS being one of the largest schools in Virginia that was started through the Julius Rosenwald Fund. In 1912, a widow named Lucy Magee sold two acres of land, called the Magee Tract, to Greensville County's Belfield school board for $1,000. From 1912 to 1913, a four-room brick building was constructed on this site to house a graded school. Reverend J.H. Waller, the principal, and a teacher, Blanch Harrison, organized the County School League, an association of friends and patrons of the school, to provide funding for additional facilities., In 1916, 1929, 1934, and the early 1940s, additions were made to the original school building. The Julius Rosenwald Fund, an organization led by Northern philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, helped build African American schools across the South during the early 1900s. The fund supported the construction of GCTS with $1,700 in 1929. The Julius Rosenwald Fund referred to this school as the "South Emporia Training School.", By 1933, the Greensville County Public Schools' four-year curriculum was accredited. GCTS offered training in home economics, vocational agriculture, carpentry, and masonry, as well as a general education curriculum that included English and history. In addition to its instructional role, the school functioned as the center of Emporia's African American community and housed meetings of the local NAACP chapter, among other activities., In 1954 a new "separate but equal" school named Wyatt High School was constructed roughly a mile to the northwest. African American high school students moved to that building, while GCTS became a learning center for Black elementary students. The school closed following desegregation in the 1960s., [Captions:] , The Greensville County Training School, one of many schools funded through the philanthropy of Julius Rosenwald, front facade, ca. 1930s., Edward W. Wyatt, the first principal of Greensville County Training School. E.W. Wyatt High School, completed in 1953, was named in his honor., The 1929-30 faculty of the Greensville County Training School: third row , Georgia P. Kelly, Carrie C. Bannister, Jessie Muse, Carrie M. Lewis, and Principal Frank H. Smith; first row, far right , Mattie Pannell, who later married the "boss"!