EXHIBIT PANEL II - Buckingham Training School

The Buckingham Training School, founded in 1924 by Reverend Stephen J. Ellis, was the first high school for African Americans in Buckingham County. Students traveled from throughout the county to attend the only high school for blacks; in many cases they had no choice but to move away from home and board with other families. Lack of transportation and resources prohibited some black students from continuing their education.

The four room wood framed building was a significant departure from the one room school houses. According to Elizabeth Harris, Buckingham Training School “seemed like a mansion …We’d been in a one room school, a small one room school and coming into Buckingham Training School was real exciting ….even though we had hand-me-down desks, [and] hand-me-down equipment.”

Black students often received “leftover” books and supplies from the white schools. Mrs. Mary Shelton Jones recalls that “the white school, … always had more than …we had. They always had plenty of books…desks and seats and everything.” She adds that the school library was actually set up in a hallway and housed “one set of encyclopedias” which were torn, “a few dictionaries” and very few books. Black students and parents recognized these inequities.

Buckingham Training School permanently closed in 1954.