Statesboro High and Industrial School

Statesboro High and Industrial School. . The origins of the Statesboro High and Industrial School can be traced to the early 1900s. The African American community's vision to organize a high school for their children in Bulloch County took shape in 1905 when a group of citizens purchased land at this site. The facility that opened in 1908 became known as the City Colored School, with educator William James (1872-1935), who had attended Atlanta Baptist Seminary (now Morehouse College), serving as head., Despite unequal public funding, James sustained operations and financed building projects with assistance from philanthropic interests including Rosenwald, Slater, and Jeanes Funds, the Knox and Crane families, and Quaker abolitionist Emily Howland, for whom a dormitory was named. An industrial laboratory was added in 1910 and the school became the Statesboro High and Industrial School. A 1924 fire destroyed two buildings. The school re-emerged through community fundraising efforts and by 1930 was one of the few accredited high schools for African Americans in Georgia., Enrollment peaked at over 500. Students attended Chapel daily and curriculum included: Latin, Physics, American History and Literature, Biology, Chemistry, Algebra and Geometry. Boarding students paid $10 and tuition ranged from .50 to $2.50 depending on grade level., Also technical education in agriculture, mechanical and domestic service classes was offered. The school held annual summer sessions for teacher training and enhanced the city's cultural life by sponsoring guest lecturers and artists in concert, notably violinist Joseph Douglass, grandson of Frederick Douglass, and concert pianist Hazel Harrison., As principal for 28 years, James lived with his wife Julia and their children nearby at 205 Church Street, hosting famed scientist Dr. George Washington Carver in 1933. James was quoted as having said; “I have spent the best years of my life in building this school, sometimes teaching all day, with a very small salary, and plowing by moonlight so that my family and the students of the school might have food. With the help of my friends I am building a school for colored people of which I am proud. It is the nearest and dearest to my heart.”, L. S. Wingfield succeeded James as principal in 1935. This school was renamed William James High School in 1948. The Bulloch County Board of Education has since operated schools and facilities elsewhere named in James' honor. , Supported by the Jack N. and Addie D. Averitt Foundation.