The struggle for educational opportunities
A photo of Lincoln School provided by the Gallia County Historical Society. (Courtesy)
Schools have historically been at the forefront in the controversial subject of segregation, and Gallia County was no exception.
Early in the county’s history there had been separate schools for whites and blacks, with the first recorded Black school being established in the 1830’s.
The Gallipolis Colored School opened in 1868, and required all African-American children to attend that school until it’s closing in 1951, when grade schools were integrated.
The high school department was established in 1877, and was later named the Lincoln School. Segregation of high school students ended in 1918 through the efforts of Lincoln School principal Wilbert Howell.
Black History Month… The relics of ‘separate but equal’
By Lorna Hart - Special to OVP
The former Langston School which was located in Point Pleasant. (Chris Rizer | Courtesy)
Photo of the former “West Virginia Colored Institute.” (Used with permission from the WV State University Archives)
Pictured is what remains of the former “Kerrs Run Colored School.” (Shannon Scott, Meigs County Historical Society | Courtesy)
Pictured is the former Lincoln School of Gallipolis, Ohio. (Gallia County Historical Society| Courtesy)
Terms of freedom
Freedmen’s Bureau, (1865–1872): The popular name for the U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, established by Congress at the end of the Civil War to provide practical aid to four million newly freed African Americans in their transition from slavery to freedom.