Mary E. Branch Elementary School Story
Initially constructed around 1928, the Mary E. Branch School served as a site of education and community building for thousands of African American students in Prince Edward County's segregated school system. In 1959, when the county chose to close their public schools instead of desegregate, the Mary E. Branch Elementary School was forcibly shuttered for five years, unjustly denying African American students in Prince Edward County the right to a free education. Mary E. Branch Elementary was reopened in 1964 as Free School #1 with private funding from the federal government, and in 1965 operated as a public and desegregated school. While the building was retired from serving as a school in 1970, it is a cherished space of remembrance for those who have a connection to it.
Initial Construction
Before the Mary E. Branch building was constructed around 1928, the site was occupied by a previous African American school, identified on a 1918 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map. While the Mary E. Branch building would be constructed of brick and two stories tall, the earlier school was a frame (wooden) construction, and one story tall. This school suffered from severe overcrowding at the end of its lifespan, and was described as “poorly equipped” and “absolutely inadequate for proper instruction” in the Farmville Herald.
Martha E. Forrester
Martha E. Forrester, a Farmville activist, served as a co-founder and longtime president of the Farmville Council of Colored Women (later renamed to the Martha E Forrester Council of Women in her honor). Forrester and the Council petitioned the Prince Edward County School Board for a new African American school for years.
Ultimately, the school board agreed to provide a new elementary school, and an initial 1925 rendering depicts a one level brick school. The Council continued to petition the School Board to include a high school in the new school design, and were ultimately successful in achieving the larger two story school that would serve eleven grades.
The Rosenwald Fund
Rosenwald Design principles
Although the Rosenwald Fund’s contribution to the Mary E Branch school represents a small portion of the school’s overall cost, receiving any funding from the Rosenwald program required that the school follow design guidelines and operational procedures laid out by the Rosenwald Fund.
Site Size
The minimum site requirement for a Rosenwald school was two acres, as opportunity for recreation on school grounds was important to the Fund’s vision for a well rounded education. At two acres, the site of the Mary E Branch school met this minimum requirement.
Natural Lighting
Classrooms within Rosenwald schools were required to face east or west to achieve desirable daylighting. The classroom windows in Mary E Branch are all east or west facing, and were double-hung to allow for ventilation.
Community Space
In addition to serving as an educational space for the student population, schools were expected to also benefit their larger communities. The Mary E Branch School also offered night classes to adults, and served as the site of after-school cultural offerings, including theatrical and musical productions.
Building Layout
The Mary E Branch Elementary School contained 11 classrooms, a library, and an auditorium. Restrooms were located in the wings on either side of the first floor.
The Original R.R. Moton High School
After high school accreditation was introduced to Prince Edward County in 1930, the Farmville Training School achieved accredited status in 1931. The school was renamed the Robert Russa Moton High School, although it continued to serve both elementary and high school students until 1939.
A 1932 Farmville Herald article described a slice of life at the first R. R. Moton High School.
The standalone Robert Russa Moton High School opened in 1939. At the time of its construction, separating the high schoolers from the elementary schoolers was viewed as an educational achievement for the Farmville African American community. However, the new Moton High School was constructed without allowance for future student population growth, and would soon prove to be inadequate.
The original Robert Russa Moton High School building then was renamed Mary E. Branch Elementary School in honor of Mary Elizabeth Branch, a Farmville-born educator who served as the first female president of Tillotson College (now known as Huston-Tillotson University).
Prince Edward County School Closures
From 1959-1964, Prince Edward County took the unprecedented step of choosing massive resistance against school integration mandated by Brown vs. Board of Education. For more information about the Prince Edward County school closures, please visit the Moton Museum's "The Moton School Story," a digital exhibit chronicling the fight for educational equality in Virginia.
Separate and Unequal
By 1951, conditions at Robert Russa Moton High School had reached an appalling state, especially in comparison with the all-white Farmville High School. The school had been constructed without a cafeteria or gymnasium. Notably, R.R. Moton High School was severely overcrowded. To house the student population, temporary structures known as tar paper shacks were constructed on the school grounds. Students who had class in the shacks complained of an environment that was freezing in the winter, sweltering in the warm weather, and leaky.
Barbara Johns
Barbara Johns was a student at R. R. Moton High School in 1951. Disturbed by the conditions at Moton, Johns organized a student strike in demand of a new school. Students marched out of Moton and to the Prince Edward County Courthouse, where they informed the school board of their demand for a new facility.
The students contacted NAACP lawyers, who urged the students to seek integration instead of a new segregated school. The resulting lawsuit, Davis vs. County School Board of Prince Edward County, was ultimately one of the cases combined into Brown vs. Board of Education.
Massive Resistance
Although the Brown vs. Board of Education decision was made in 1954, many counties were deliberately slow to integrate. In 1959, under a court order to desegregate the school system, the Prince Edward County School Board instead voted to defund the county's public schools, shuttering their operations. This public school closure would ultimately last five years.
Free Schools
In 1963, federal and private funding allowed for the creation of the Prince Edward County Free School Association, which funded the opening of three public schools in Prince Edward County for the 1963-1964 school year. The Mary E. Branch Elementary #1, as pictured above, was one of the schools opened as a Free School. While the Free School system offered students the opportunity to return to a formalized and accessible education, the schools were still technically private and largely operating on a segregated basis, with most of Prince Edward County's white students attending the segregated Prince Edward Academy. Despite being private and white-only, Prince Edward Academy was funded in part with public tax money and state grants.
Prince Edward County SCHOOls Reopen
While the Prince Edward County Free School Association was successful in offering a free education to Prince Edward County children, it was intended to be a temporary and emergency measure. As described by Robert Kennedy, the Free Schools were unnatural and unsatisfactory, as the Prince Edward County School Board should be providing a truly public education to its constituents. In 1964, the Supreme Court decision in Griffin vs. County School Board of Prince Edward County ordered the school system to reopen.
Recreation Center
By 1970, the Mary E Branch Building was over 40 years old. Prince Edward County made the decision to retire and sell several of the County's 1920s- and 30s-era schools, including Rice Elementary School, Green Bay Elementary School, and Mary E Branch Elementary School. In 1971, the Prince Edward County Recreation Association purchased the building for $12,001. Around this time, original windows were covered or removed and replaced with storm windows.
It is unclear when the Recreation Center closed, but by the time of this 2001 photograph, the sign had been removed. The building was vacant for many years before the Mary E. Branch Heritage Center acquired ownership.
A Critical TIme
Our Mission
The Mary E. Branch Elementary School building has suffered severe damage during its period of vacancy, including a partially collapsed roof and floor. Rehabilitating the building will require significant funding and effort, and time is of the essence, as the building continues to suffer damage from the elements. However, it is not too late. The Mary E Branch Heritage Center and their community partners are working hard to achieve their goal of making the building able to be used again as a community space.