This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Community Corner

Black History in Our Backyard

This month, the Hiram Rosenwald School Museum, listed in the National Register of Historic Places, is offering many activities in observance of Black History Month.

This week’s Great Escape is for those who enjoy learning about the past and their family history. Interest in our past tends to increase with such TV shows as NBC’s “Who Do You Think You Are?”

Each week, we’ll tell you about one great idea to give you a much-deserved break and make your life a little easier—maybe a whole lot easier.

Throughout February, Black History Month is being observed throughout the country. Hiram has its own claim to this heritage with the Hiram Rosenwald School Museum that has been open for the last five years.

Find out what's happening in Dallas-Hiramwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

 On the west side of Ga. 92, the free museum at 732 Hiram-Douglasville Highway is open to the public from noon to 3 p.m. on Saturdays. Black History Month activities include:

  • 3 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 12, Movie at the Museum, “My Friend Martin” — Free admission; hot dogs and chips $2, sodas 50 cents. Children welcome.
  • 1 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 19, inaugural Women’s Entrepreneurial Luncheon — guest speaker Bernadette Frazier, CEO of People of Promise Behavioral Health. Tickets at $15.
  • 3 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 26, “I Am Black History” — a skit written by Yaa Hactcher “featuring people in black history past and present from Paulding County and afar.” Children welcome; free refreshments.

For more information on any of these events, contact Executive Director Vivian Anderson at 678-715-2730 or viviananderson@hiramrosenwaldschoolmuseum.com or Manager Joan Battle at 770-943-7473 or Joanbattle@hiramrosenwaldschoolmuseum.com.

Find out what's happening in Dallas-Hiramwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The museum was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001 – one of seven Rosenwald schools to receive that distinction in the nation. Then in 2006, the Georgia Historical Society established an historical marker outside the school.  

Mottos of the museum are “preserving our past . . . for the future” and “dedicated to African-American historical and cultural heritage—both past and present.” Known originally as the Hiram Colored School, this structure was one of 242 built in Georgia almost 100 years ago.

To provide quality education for African-American students, the schools were the dream of Julius Rosenwald, president of Sears, Roebuck and Company. In 1912, he established the Rosenwald Fund to build the schools with matching funds from the communities.

By the 1930s, nearly 5,000 Rosenwald schools had been built in 15 states throughout the South. One out of five schools for African-American students in the South was a Rosenwald school.

For 25 years, the Hiram Colored School was in operation from 1930 to 1955. Including a library, this school was the only one in Paulding County for African-American students.

In April 1930, the Paulding County Board of Education gave the black community only two months to raise two-thirds of the construction funding and have the combination school and library completed. The Rosenwald Fund paid the remaining third and provided blueprints of different size schools plus a list of all the lumber needed and a choice of two color schemes. The Two Teacher Community School Plan was chosen for the Hiram Colored School building.

Anderson, who attended the school as well as her parents Roy and Christine (Alexander) Barnwell, remembers, “You could hear Professor Rutland ringing the bell.” That bell still stands outside the school near the state historical marker.

“Some of the teachers rode the Greyhound bus to Petty’s Store and walked to the school,” she adds. That walk was a mile from the current-day intersection of Ga. 92 and U.S. 278.

“I remember that the boys used to have to collect wood and coal to start the fire,” says Anderson, who is retired after 23 years with General Motors and 16 years with the Paulding County Voter Registration Office.

“And bring in water for the pump,” adds Museum Secretary Willene Alexander, also a former student along with her father Willis Alexander.

“At that time, we had no overweight students because we had to walk,” remarks Alexander. “We really did walk to school in the rain and the cold and the snow because our parents believed you needed to be in school every day. If you were sick, you had to really be sick.”

“The teachers were real strict. You had to stand in a row to spell words. One teacher would slap your hand with a ruler for the same number of words you missed,” says Anderson.

Of the two-room schoolhouse, Alexander says, “We may have had about 50 in each room.” Her teacher Eva Steele inspired Alexander to become a teacher, but she never told Steele of her influence.

“I wanted to be a teacher and be just like her,” recalls Alexander, now retired from teaching special needs children in elementary school for 36 years in middle Georgia.

Of Steele, she remembers, “She was a no-nonsense person, and you just wanted to please her. I thought it was great that she was also my dad’s teacher.”

Anderson says, “We had a lot of homework to do. We would all help the one who was slower.”

Museum member and former student Lois Jones adds, “We had to learn poems and recite them.” Jones is retired from being “a lunchroom lady” for the Paulding County School District for 19 years. Mother of 12 children, Jones is the grandmother of 27 and the great-grandmother of 32.

Jones says they also learned to be “respectful” of their teachers. “And if your parents found out you did something you weren’t supposed to do, you would get it at home,” remembers Anderson.

“One time, there was a fight outside and I was just watching. But our teacher said she would whip everyone, so I ran home. Then my mama brought me back for the teacher to whip me and I wasn’t fighting!” Anderson recalls. “Sometimes I think the teachers enjoyed whipping us.” Yet Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Alexander both claim their whippings were not abuse.

For fun, they would play with jump ropes and hula hoops and such games as “Hide and Go Seek,” “Ring Around the Rosie” and “Little Sally Walker.” Anderson says, “During May Day, we would have plays and wear dresses made of crepe paper.” 

“And we had to make the decorations for the play—crepe flowers,” says Alexander.

“We enjoyed coming to school. I guess that was the only outlet that we had—and church,” says Anderson. She and Alexander are first cousins. The museum’s manager Joan Battle is the sister of Anderson and retired from serving as a counselor for 40 years for the Paulding County School District.

In 1953, the school became a part of that district. “We all had to go to Dallas to school,” recalls Anderson. In 1955, the Paulding County Board of Education sold the school to Sweet Home Baptist Church—still the owners who have used the school as a community building.

Now the Hiram school is one of around 40 of 242 Rosenwald schools still standing in Georgia. At least one Rosenwald school was built in about 100 of Georgia’s 159 counties.

As plans progressed for the proposed widening of Ga. 92, former students became concerned and began their efforts to protect the school from being torn down. The building has its original wooden floor, ceiling and wall boards. The only changes are the addition of bathrooms, a kitchen and storm windows.

Donations of artifacts, photographs and other historical items are all tax-deductible. Monetary donations also are tax-deductible. For donations, contact Curator Debra Harden at 678-838-1835 or 678-857-0939 or debraharden@hiramrosenwaldschoolmuseum.com or debraharden@comcast.net. The mailing address is: The Hiram Rosenwald School Museum, P.0. Box 1865, Hiram, GA 30141.

Other groups meeting at the museum include the Northwest Bridge Club (call Joan Battle at 770-943-7473), the Alpha & Omega Recovery Group (call Fred Anderson at 678-715-2730) and the Metro Atlanta Veterans of Georgia Inc. (call Bennie McGarity at 404-521-8503).

Download the movie

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Dallas-Hiram