It is almost axiomatic in America that childhood hardship

It is almost axiomatic in America that childhood hardship provides an anvil upon which greatness is often struck. The ‘Horatio Alger’ vision has long captivated the American imagination (Alger was a 19th Century writer whose 100+ ‘dime-novels’ focused on rags-to-riches tales of young boys who rose above meager circumstances to great achievement, largely on the basis of hard work). That vision is one of the literary backbones of the American Dream! But while Alger’s stories focus on the role of effort in success, they do not always stress the equally vital roles of education and societal factors.

Were the spectacular rises of Alger’s heroes universal, then children who were unfortunate enough to have been bom to black parents in the 100 years following the Civil War might be excused if they had all become superheroes. The hardships, indignities, and injustice to which these children were subjected are, even today, in a word, mindboggling. And nowhere was the struggle greater than in education.

During those years, control of access to and quality of education were among the most insidious tools employed to ensure that black folks, however free they might be under the 14th Amendment, were to be relegated, at best, to second and more likely third or fourth-class citizenship. Black schools in those days were both separate and unequal. The situation in Rappahannock County in this period was probably the norm, black schools were small structures, built by student’s families who also often housed the teachers for the schools and provided the fuel (wood) to heat the buildings. Outhouses were the standard sanitary facility and water came from streams or springs.

School locations were less than choice and buses were only for white kids. One of the former students indicates that, in lieu of bus transportation, the school board offered black children a pair of shoes: Such a deal! Thus black children (and teachers) had to walk to school, sometimes as much as 10 miles. It is not surprising that attendance was sometimes spotty. The Sperryville School, located at the intersection of what is now US 211 and Oventop Road was near a quarry. Classes were periodically interrupted for evacuation when blasting occurred. The school was later moved to a safer location on Woodward Rd about Vfe mile south of US 211.

There were other hazards as well. Black students were often subjected to ridicule, racial epithets, and handthrown objects as they went to and from school. The antagonists: White kids riding on buses. After school, older children had to clean the classroom and prepare firewood. Sometimes vagrants would occupy the building at night, creating a mess and burning the next day’s wood supply.

In addition to Sperryville, in the late 1800s and early 1900s black schools were also