Calhoun Colored School, Lowndes County, Alabama

The following excerpt is from an article (with photographs) published in 1919 in The National Cyclopedia of the Colored Race:

“Calhoun Colored School is located at Calhoun, in the agricultural County of Lowndes, southern Alabama, 27 miles south of Montgomery, on the main line of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. Eighty five per cent of the people of the County are Colored, 95 per cent of the precinct.

“The School was founded in 1892 by Miss Mabel W. Dillingham and Miss Charlotte R. Thorn, Northern white workers at Hampton Institute. Shortly before nearly forty Negroes of the vicinity had lost their lives in a race conflict. After this catastrophe the people held religious services for two weeks, praying for a school from the North.

“Among the original trustees were Booker T. Washington, who continued in that office until his death, John Bigelow, and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, who was succeeded by Richard P. Hallowell. General Armstrong, though in failing health, gave invaluable endorsement and counsel.

“Lowndes and the adjacent Counties south and west were of the most neglected regions of the South. There was almost no Negro ownership of land. The crop lien tenancy conditions were unusually repressive. The cabins lacked even the crudest sanitary equipment. The meager public school funds of Lowndes County were divided between White and Colored in the ratio of thirteen to one per child.

“Conditions at once shaped the work into the following departments: First, the school centre for a limited number of boarding pupils, with farm and industries; second, instruction of pupils from the cabins; third, community work; fourth extension work into the County and gradually beyond.

“Miss Dillingham survived only two years of Calhoun’s early toils and hardships. Miss Thorn is still principal.”

The complete article is available at Internet Archive.
[What was the “race conflict” noted above? — Leslie]

See also: The Calhoun School Principal’s House is on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). An excerpt from the nomination form on NRHP website notes:

“The campus of Calhoun School consists of approximately ten acres and some seven structures. Unfortunately, most of the structures associated with the school’s early history have been torn down and replaced by contemporary buildings. These older structures include a dispensary, a teacher’s bungalow, and Hampton Cottage, all built between 1900-1930. The only building of historic nature from the earlier founding period is Hampton Cottage, the present principal’s residence. Originally built as one of the six teacher’s cottages, it has been used by the principals since 1947 when the founder’s residence, Thorn Cottage, burned.”
The complete nomination form is at Calhoun School, Lowndes County, Alabama, National Digital Assets, National Register of Historic Places.