March 28, 2015 at ETSU
Panelists recount aspects of an exhibition, organized and presented by the Rural Heritage Museum of Mars Hill University, that examined the history of African American Education in Madison County, North Carolina, after the Civil War and until the period of Civil Rights in 1964. The profound impact the Mars Hill Anderson Rosenwald School had on the lives of its students will be presented by school alumni and other panel members.
The Mars Hill Anderson Rosenwald School
Today’s historians tell us that a SENSE OF PLACE is what defines a people. This panel analyzes aspects of an exhibition that told the story of African American education in a place called Mars Hill, in the Appalachian mountains of Madison County, North Carolina. It details the history of an African American peoples’ experience, in their own words, from Reconstruction through the period of Integration and the Civil Rights legislation in the 1960s.
The Long Ridge Colored School, and later the Mars Hill Anderson Rosenwald School, played a significant role in the history of African American education in Madison County. Aspects of the day to day learning experience of the students who attended the school will be discussed. The panel will also talk about some of the struggles, the hopes and the dreams of the students, their teachers and their parents. All of this is presented through the experiences of panel members who attended the school. A brief history of the Rosenwald Schools in Appalachia and the legacy of a Rosenwald education will be presented.
It is hoped that conference attendees will take away an enhanced awareness and a greater understanding of the struggles and success stories experienced by African Americans in their desire to provide a quality education for their children in Madison County, North Carolina, after Reconstruction. Another goal is to provide an opportunity to understand the hope for a brighter future that the Mars Hill Anderson Rosenwald School provided African American children between 1928 and 1965.