African American Schools in Madison County, KY
Start Year : 1825
End Year : 1963
In his master's thesis, History of Education in Madison County, Robert E. Little wrote that in the first quarter of the 1800s, slave owner Green Clay taught his Negro overseers to read and write [p.42]. Also according to Little, it was around 1850 that slave owner Cabell Chenault built a school on his property for his slaves [p.42]. Chenault and his daughter taught the school. It was in 1866 that the first public colored school was held in Madison County with as many as 34 students [sources: History of Education in Madison County, p.43; the Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Education in Kentucky; and the NKAA entry African American Schools - Kentucky, 1866]. According to author Richard D. Sears, John H. Jackson taught a school class in Madison County in 1868, and Cornelius C. Vaughn taught at a freedmen's school in Richmond in 1870 [source: A Utopian Experiment in Kentucky by R. D. Sears, p.91]. There were several colored schools in Madison County that were supported by the U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands [see NKAA entry Freedmen Schools, Kentucky]. From 1880 to 1881, there were 14 colored schools and 14 teachers [Little, p.44], the schools were taught in churches and rented buildings, and there were only two or three colored school buildings [Little, p.45]. According to Little, in 1886, there were 27 colored schools [Little, p.172]. In 1888, there were still 27 colored school districts in Madison County, KY [source: Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the Commonwealth of Kentucky for the school year ending June 30, 1886 and for the school year ending June 30, 1887]. There were as many as 34 colored schools in 1893 and in 1897 [Little, p.172], and the highest attendance was during the 1893-94 school term with 975 students [Little, p.174]. In 1903, there was a colored school in Berea [source: "Berea and vicinity," The Citizen, 11/26/1903, p.6; and the Joshua Crenshaw Report on the Berea Colored School 1905-06]. Within the Black American Series title, Berea and Madison County by J. G. Burnside, there are pictures of former students, teachers, and principals at Madison County colored schools. The pictures were taken prior to school desegregation in Bobtown, Farristown, Middletown, Peytontown, and Richmond. Also included are students and faculty at Berea College prior to segregation in 1904. Other Colored schools in Madison County in 1912 were Concord School, Richmond City School, Valley View School, and Calloway Creek School [source: "Graduation Diplomas," Richmond Climax, 02/07/1912, p.4]. During the school year 1932-33, there were 14 colored schools in Madison County [Little, p.172-173]. The Madison County Board of Education paid $4 per month, per county high school student who attended Richmond Colored High School; there was not a colored high school in the county. The Madison County schools integrated in 1963.

• Colored Schools (34)
• Berea School
• Berea Freedmen School
• Bobtown School
• Calloway Creek School
• Concord School
• Farristown School
• Kingston American Missionary Association School supported by the Bureau
• Middletown School
• Peytontown School
• Richmond American Missionary Association School supported by the Bureau
• Richmond Freedmen School
• Richmond High School
• Valley View School 

Subjects: Education and Educators, Photographers, Photographs, Grade Schools & High Schools in Kentucky, Higher Education Before Desegregation, Kentucky, African American Schools in Kentucky (Counties A-Z)
Geographic Region: Madison County, Kentucky