Edward U. Taylor School

Edward U. Taylor School. Remarkable Montgomery: Untold Stories. , The Edward U. Taylor School is an important part of Boyds' history that reflects the story of segregation and the fight for educational equality in the county. When Montgomery County started providing schools for Black students in the 1870s, many of the new schools were built onto churches. Even as the County began building one-room schoolhouses, they remained underfunded and inferior to those provided for white students. Local Black teachers, parents, and advocates fougth against injustice to improve opportunities for children. Civil rights advocates sued for equal schools and funding, and had landmark wins in the 1950s. As a result of their success, the county built the Edward U. Taylor School and three other modern schools for Black students between 1950 and 1952. These buildings were a major achievmeent for the community that had lobbied tirelessly for better schools., When the Edward U. Taylor School opened in 1952, it was celebrated for its Modern Movement , influenced design, with fashionable brick veneer and ribbon metal windows. The school had four main classrooms, an auditorium, a stage, and a cafeteria; hoever the stage and auditorium were immediately repurposed to serve as classrooms due to overcrowding. The school was expanded in 1954, 1961, and 1969., In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education forced Montgomery County Public Schools to end its systematic segregation. In June 1961, the Taylor School became the last public elementary school in the County to desegregate. It reopened as the only formerly segregated Black elementary school to resume as an integrated school. The building stopped operating as a school in 1979, due to low enrollment, and was adapted for specialty uses. Today, the building is a reminder of the Boyds community's accomplishments in the pursuit of educational equality., [Sidebars:] , Edward Ulysses Taylor , The Taylor school was named after Edward Ulysses Taylor, a lifelong advocate for Black education in Montgomery County. Born in Emory Grove in 1898, Taylor attended the local segregated elementary school and then commuted to Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C., because the County did not provide high schools for Black students., After Taylor graduated from Howard University, the Board of Education appointed him as the ssecond 'Supervisor of Colored Schools' in Montgomery Countyl. He worked to improve elementary schools and fought for the Black high school he had been denied. In 1927, Taylor became the principal and only teacher at the County's first Black high school in Rockville, in addition to his responsibilities as supervisor. Taylor's persistent advocacy was realized when the Board of Education approved the construction of the new consolidated Black schools. After his passing, the School Board voted to name the Edward U. Taylor School in honor of his lifelong work.,

"He had witnessed the strain of attending school in Washington, he thought of handicaps that others could not surmount, and of opportunities that might be missed by those who were not as fortunate as he." , Deidcatory Souvenir and Program, Edward U. Taylor School, circa 1953

, A History of Schools in Boyds , The landscape of Boyds highlights the evolution of racial segregation and integration in the public school system. From east to west along White Ground Road: the site of the demolished 'School No. 5' (built for Black children in 1878, and reconstructed in 1895), which was associated with St. Mark's United Methodist Church; the purpose-built, one-room, segregated 'School No. 2" (built around 1895); and the consolidated, initially segregated Edward U. Taylor School (built in 1952)., [Captions:] , The Taylor family standing outside the school building after its dedication, circa 1952. Edward Taylor's family from left to right: John C. Kelly, Sr. (son-in-law), Joan T. Kelly (daughter), Maude F. Taylor (wife), Sonia Taylor (daughter-in-law), Edward v. Taylor (son). , Source: Montgomery History photograph, courtesy of John C. Kelly Jr. and Joan Taylor Kelly, Montgomery County hired the firm of McLeod and Ferrara, specialists in educational and religious architecture, to build the Taylor School and the three other consolidated schools built in 1952. The firm also built the 1954 addition of the Taylor School, while De Groot and Associates designed the 1960s additions. , Source: Addition to Edward U. Taylor School, McLeod and Ferrara, 1954, MCPS Archive, Photo of Edward U. Taylor (undated) , Source: Montgomery History, Public School Vertical File, Above: St. Mark's United Methodist Church, site of Boyds' first school for Black children (built ca. 1878) , Middle: The Community's first one-room, purpose-built schoolhouse, called 'School No. 2' (built ca. 1895). , Source: Montgomery Planning, Bottom: Students holding the Boyds' School No. 2 school flag, date unknown. , Source: Boyds Historical Society