African American Schoolhouse

African American Schoolhouse. Museum. , Worton Point 'Colored' Public School #2, District Number 3; a one-room schoolhouse built August 1890. This structure was documented by the University of Delaware Center for Historic and Architectural Design in June 2003. Prior to the 1930's county busing program, children from neighboring communities traveled up to six miles on foot or horse and carriage in rain or snow. Class sizes notably increased during the winter months, when male students were not able to work in the fields; daily attendance could rise to thirty pupils The last class held in this school was in 1958.The students were taught the States' required curriculum from first through sixth grades; the extent of that need was dictated by ages and numbers of pupils in attendance. Now a museum, this school is the showplace of an exhibit of photographs, artifacts and oral histories of the lives and contributions of black families of early Kent County Maryland., [Captions:] , Emma L. Grason Miller (1869-1951). Born in Grasonville, Maryland, she moved to Chestertown, Maryland, with her family during adolescence. Emma was 17 years old when she posed for this picture, with the Hampton Institute graduating Class of 1887 in Hampton, Virginia. She returned to Chestertown and subsequently became the first supervisor of 'Colored' schools 1911-1922. Emma spearheaded the drive, and was successful, in convincing people of a need for a 'colored' high school in Kent County. Born in 1915, the first school, Henry Highland Garnett, was located across from Historic Bethel AME Church in Chestertown., Alice Phillips Saunders (1908-2003), granddaughter to former slave, Mikey Phillips, was a student at this school and proudly received her Certificate of Graduation, after completing grade 6 in 1925. She, like most other black children of her time had no guarantee of continued education beyond that level. Yet she married, owned her home, and worked as a nurse's aid in Wilmington, Delaware, until her retirement., Barbara A. Smith Jones (1936-1998). The last teacher at Worton Point School, Barbara taught here from 1954 to 1958. Her career in education continued at Chestertown at Henry Highland Garnett School