Photo: Del Mount Seminary Grammar School Graduates, circa 1927.

After the Civil War, the first school in Oxford [for African-Americans] was started in 1867 under the Freedmen’s Bureau and taught by Alexander Phillips, an African-American preacher. The school was held five days a week from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Studies included grammar, arithmetic, geography, spelling, reading, and writing. Mr. Borrum also tried to start a school about ten miles west of Oxford but it was immediately burned.Later several churches created schools such as the Second Baptist Church School taught by H.W. Bowen. Public education began with the Oxford Colored High School founded in 1882 and located in Freemantown, although this school burned. At the turn of the century, Walter Johnson with his wife Dovie Evelyn Wilburn Johnson created a private elementary school on North 7th Street [now Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. ] called Del Mount Seminary. In the rural areas of the country, African-American one room schools were built every three miles, approximately 46 schools were created including Dallas, Harrisonville, Oliver, Rush, East Providence, and Galilee to name a few. Sometimes these schools were held in local churches until a building was constructed. Many young African-American teachers in Oxford had their first teaching experience in these schools boarding with local parents, earning about $22.00 a month.

In the 1910’s, the Rosenwald school with elementary grades and later, high school, was built through private donor financing on the site of the original Oxford Colored School... In 1930 Rosenwald was renamed Oxford High School. During the year 1933-34 Oxford High School became Lafayette County Training School until it mysteriously burned in 1936. During the school years 1936-1939, classes were held in black churches until a new structure was completed in 1939...at a cost of $78,000 and renamed Oxford Training School. This school endured as Oxford Training School until 1962...when the students were instrumental in getting the name...changed to Central High School...The school remained Central High School until desegregation of Oxford’s schools in February 1970.

Also in eGrove: John E. Phay Collection, a photo collection of the pre-integration days of selected public elementary and secondary schools of Mississippi.