Program

Hometown Heritage®

Subject

Building, Education

Location

798 US-13, Ahoskie, NC 27910, USA

Lat/Long

36.35359, -76.97953

Grant Recipient

Chowan Discovery Group

Built in 1920, the Pleasant Plains School was partly funded by the Rosenwald Fund and replaced an earlier school on the property which was constructed in 1866. In 1875, North Carolina amended the 1868 state constitution to mandate education for all children, although the schools were separated by race. In Hertford County, schools for Black children were originally funded by churches and private organizations. The Rosenwald school building program was a Progressive Era program funded by philanthropist Julius Rosenwald. He partnered with African American educator and activist Booker T. Washington, first working with Washington’s Tuskegee Institute and then forming an independent foundation to manage the school program. After meeting in 1912, the two men built thousands of schools for black students in 15 states. The Rosenwald Schools, as they are known, were often the first schools in a black community and helped improve education across the South. (The Rosenwald Schools: Progressive Era Philanthropy in the Segregated South, National Park Service’s Teaching with Historic Places. Accessed December 15, 2024)

The Pleasant Plains schoolhouse was the only graded school that served students of color in the Pleasant Plains community of Winton, North Carolina from 1920 to 1950. It included three classrooms, each with a separate entrance. Built without running water or electricity, these amenities were added after the building was converted to a community center in 1951. The school had closed in 1950 when the C.S. Brown Elementary School opened and the property reverted back to the Pleasant Plains Baptist Church. (National Register of Historic Places Registration Places registration form, April 8, 2016)

Links

• Pleasant Plains School