Pike Road High School

Pike Road High School is a public school in Pike Road, Alabama, a part of Pike Road Schools.[1] The school site was home to the People's Village School, later renamed Georgia Washington Middle School, until it was acquired by the school system of Pike Road.

Georgia Washington Middle School prior to its conversion

The school was formerly in the Mount Meigs community.[2]

History

Founding and early history

The school was founded in 1893 by Georgia Washington (1851-1952), a woman who was born a slave in Virginia; she was sold along with her mother, away from her father.[3] After emancipation she graduated from Hampton University (1882), an HBCU in Virginia where she taught for a while before moving to Mount Meigs, Alabama, where she started a small school,[4] called the People's Village School. At the time, Mount Meigs was a rural area with a significant African-American population,[5] and the school's first building was a small cabin, 12 by 13 feet, where Washington had four boys as students.[3] Washington is buried on the school grounds.[5]

Subsequent history

By 1916 enrollment had reached 225. Washington retired in 1936, and after her death in 1952 the school was renamed for her.[3] In 1943 the school was deeded to Montgomery Public Schools,[5] and after a fire destroyed the Mount Meigs Colored Institute in 1948 (then known as Montgomery County Training School), that institute was incorporated into it.[6] It became a junior high school in 1970, and a middle school in 2012. By 2017 enrollment was 600.[3] In 2018, controversy arose because the Montgomery school system, headed by an interim superintendent while under state oversight, announced the sale of the school to the Pike Road Municipal school system; a lawsuit to stop the sale was filed by the Alabama Education Association on behalf of three teachers and parents. The sale would mandate that the school keep its name and that her grave be maintained.[5] The Alabama Supreme Court allowed the sale.[7]

References
  1. "Pike Road High School in Alabama - U.S. News Education". U.S. News & World Report. Archived from the original on 2022-06-20.
  2. "History of Georgia Washington Junior High School Archived 2012-07-24 at the Wayback Machine." Georgia Washington Junior High School. Retrieved on March 4, 2011.
  3. Klass, Kym (August 7, 2017). "Keeping 'an era alive', Georgia Washington remembered". Montgomery Advertiser. Retrieved February 24, 2018.
  4. "Who was Georgia Washington". Retrieved February 24, 2018.
  5. "Lawsuit Filed to Stop Sale of Washington". Montgomery Advertiser. February 28, 2018. pp. 1, 5a.
  6. "Founders' Day Service Set at Mt. Meigs". Alabama Journal. November 19, 1964. p. 40. Retrieved November 6, 2022.
  7. "All sides react to AL Supreme Court ruling in MPS school sale lawsuit". WSFA. 2018-05-04. Retrieved 2022-07-05.

32.3553°N 86.1016°W / 32.3553; -86.1016

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