Years Apart, Two African American Women Embodied the Spirit of their Times in Somerville, TN

Picture courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive, General Education Board Records, Series 1054, TENN 126.1- County Training Schools 1915-1919

In this moving picture taken c. 1919, a girl named Clara Coleman holds the reins and looks through time with clear-eyed determination. Writing on the back of the old picture notes that she drives five miles over rough roads to the Fayette County Training School in Somerville, Tennessee in order to obtain education for herself and her younger siblings.

We can discern several things from the picture and from the notes on the back: First, this young lady, a 10th grade student, is committed to her education. The notes say that every day, before setting out for school, she milks five cows and helps her mother with breakfast. Of 100 days of school being in session, she has attended 93.

Second, in spite of the buggy’s mud-covered wheels and the knotted, makeshift repair of her horse’s harness, her family must have been relatively well off. Few African American families at that time would have been able to dedicate a horse and buggy just for going to school. Of the dozens of alumni of historic African American schools that I have interviewed, no one has ever mentioned having a horse or mule to take them to school. They walked, in all weather, many of them up to five or six miles.

Third, they are pictured in front of a school building that was probably built on a Rosenwald Fund school plan. The clean roof lines and the nine-over-nine pane windows are hallmarks of Rosenwald schools. The school in the picture is probably the Fayette County Training School. Bill Carey notes recently in The Tennessee Magazine that of about 90 historic African American high schools in Tennessee, all but 15 are gone. He says “The Fayette County Training School building is long gone.”

In order to understand Clara’s journey, it’s important to understand some of the historical context of African American school building. The African American school building movement began in the 1860s and continued into the 1950s.

During and immediately after the Civil War, emancipated African American communities sought literacy and built schools. They did this both with and without the help of religious organizations, northern philanthropists, and southern school boards. Dr. James D. Anderson’s The Education of Blacks in the South 1860-1930 chronicles this massive movement.

The most easily recognizable buildings created during this movement were the “Rosenwald schools,” which were schools constructed through a matching grant program pioneered by Booker T. Washington and Julius Rosenwald. However, they were by no means the only kinds of schools built by African Americans.

In a previous article, “Schools Built by African Americans Changed the South,” I quoted the Superintendent of the Freedman’s Bureau, who remarked on the African American commitment to education:

“John Alvord, Superintendent of the Freedman’s Bureau, observed in July, 1866 that: “The surprising efforts of our colored population to obtain education...are growing to a habit." (Anderson, The Education of Blacks in the South 1860-1935)

Their participation in schooling exploded after the Civil War. African Americans of all ages sought education and built schools, even before securing the basic necessities of life.

Regarding Rosenwald schools, communities had to organize to request a school and raise funds to obtain a matching grant. These donations were over and above the taxes they paid. The height of the Rosenwald school building movement was in the 1920s.

From the same article quoted above, Schools Built by African Americans Changed the South:

Typically, the African American community raised at least 20% of the cost of a school, and often also donated materials and labor. The Rosenwald Fund usually matched their contribution up to about 20%, but would not release funds until the local school board agreed to complete the building and incorporate the school into the public system. Local European Americans donated as well, although their contributions did not close the enormous resource gap between the two school systems.”

The Rosenwald Fund school building effort, structured as a matching grant program, began with a $25,000 gift Julius Rosenwald made in 1912 to Tuskegee Institute (now University) in support of teacher training. At the behest of Tuskegee president Booker T. Washington and his assistant Clinton J. Calloway, Rosenwald allowed $2800 of that money to be used in a pilot matching grant program to help communities build small rural schools.

From 1912, when the first six Rosenwald Schools were built in Alabama, to 1932, when the Rosenwald Fund ceased funding schools, the program helped to construct over 5,000 buildings for education across the South: 4,977 schools, 163 shops, and 217 boarding houses for teachers. (Hoffschwelle, The Rosenwald Schools of the American South).

In Tennessee, communities partnered with the Rosenwald Fund to build 354 schools, 9 teacherages (boarding housing for teachers), and 10 shop buildings. In addition to paying their taxes, African American citizens in Tennessee donated $296,388. They also frequently donated materials and/or labor. The Rosenwald Fund granted $291,250 toward the construction of Tennessee’s 373 Rosenwald buildings (Hoffschwelle).

In Fayette County, TN, African American families paid their taxes, then raised funds again to build 21 Rosenwald schools. The Fisk University Rosenwald Fund Card File Database reveals that the schools were built from the earliest days of the Rosenwald school program, when it was administered by Tuskegee beginning in 1912, to 1932, when the Rosenwald Fund ceased its school-building program.

Whether or not the Fayette County Training School received a Rosenwald grant for its construction, or whether it was just that Rosenwald school architectural plans were used, the school would have undoubtedly been influenced by the strong participation in school building evident in Fayette County.

According to the Tennessee county history series : Fayette County (1989) / by Dorothy Rich Morton, Fayette County Training School did have Rosenwald Fund assistance and became a four-year high school in 1928. It was later renamed W.P. Ware High School in honor of its long-serving principal. Morton notes that “An old ledger shows...the names of money who contributed gifts of money and free labor to aid in the building of the school.”

By the 1950s, the old wooden Rosenwald schools had often fallen into disrepair or disuse, and some counties built “equalization schools” in an effort to delay desegregation.

Some of Tennessee’s most hard-fought struggles for education and civil rights played out in Fayette County. Although Clara Coleman is lost to time, a later alumna of Fayette County Training School was equally determined as she fought for education voting rights.

Viola McFerren (1931-2013) was born in Mississippi, but moved to Tennessee to attend the W.P. Ware High School (the former Fayette County Training School). According to a website maintained by The Jackson Sun, McFerren married, and was soon involved in voter registration and in pushing for more opportunity for all:

“Just before graduating high school in 1950, she married John McFerren, whom she divorced in 1980. They had five children. She became a registered cosmetologist and she and John farmed eight acres of cotton and corn.

When John led the voter registration drive, she begged him not to. She lived with fear every day, she said, until she put her faith in God. At that point, she said, "I realized if we don't do this for our people, who will?"

She helped found the Fayette County Civic and Welfare League Inc., later renamed the Original Fayette County Civic and Welfare League Inc., and kept its office in her home.

She drafted the first proposal for the Head Start program in Fayette County in 1964 and got federal funding for kindergarten and adult basic education programs.

"The poor in this county needed help. They needed education. These programs were for white and black alike," she said.”

Viola McFerren was later honored by Presidents Nixon and Bush, Sr. for her efforts. The University of Memphis maintains a site dedicated to commemorating the McFerrens and other activists who braved hardship and violence to register voters and fight for more opportunity. Although they navigated different paths, they both showed incredible determination on their journeys.