African American Schools in Madisonville and Hopkins County, KY
Start Year : 1866
According to the 1866 Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, there was one colored school in Hopkins County. By 1888, there were 18 colored school districts [source: Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction]. March 26, 1888, the Kentucky General Assembly approved an act for the city of Madisonville to establish a system of public schools for Colored children. The system was to cover all points one mile from the center of the city, and the school district covered two miles out. The act outlined the structure of a Colored school board which would be responsible for the hiring of the teachers, the curriculum, and the operation of the school. Colored children only, between the ages of 6-20, would be allowed to attend the schools. The first school trustees were John R. Ross, George H. Speed, Alex Mitcheson, Ephraim Porter, and Edward Nisbet. A poll tax was to be collected from Colored property owners for the building of a school. A second poll tax was to be levied against the Colored male, head of households to pay the teachers' salaries and other expenses. The Zion High School was located in Madisonville in 1893 [source: "Mrs. Celia Dunlap visited the Zion High School at Madisonville...," Bee, 02/23/1893, p.2]. Clarence Timberlake was superintendent of Colored schools in 1918, according to the Proceedings and Reports for the Year Ending 1918 by the John F. Slater Fund. Teachers and principals of the Madisonville Colored Schools are listed in the Proceedings of the Kentucky Negro Educational Association, 1916-1950. On the cover of the January-February 1933, vol.3, issue 2, is a a picture of the new Rosenwald High School in Madisonville. William E. Lee was the principal of the 10 room school, which had an industrial department with brick-laying, mechanical drawing, and home economics. Other principals of the Madisonville Colored School from 1922 to 1941 were Nora B. Ross and Pearl M. Patton [source: The History of Education in Hopkins County, Kentucky by H. Ardis Simons]. For more see Chapter 689, pp.472-475, Acts of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, Passed, Regular Session, v.2, 1888. See also the NKAA entry African American Schools in Earlington, KY.

• Earlington School
• Madisonville School
• Zion High School
• Rosenwald High School

Subjects: Education and Educators, Grade Schools & High Schools in Kentucky, African American Schools in Kentucky (Counties A-Z)
Geographic Region: Madisonville, Hopkins County, Kentucky