Consolidated White River Academy

The Consolidated White River Academy in Brinkley was founded the late 1800s so that African-American students in the area could finish high school.

A number of African-American church groups created the academy so that a Christian education following the model of Tuskegee Institute would be available to young people who at that time had extremely limited opportunities to get an education.

An excellent piece about the Consolidated White River Academy can be found at the online Encyclopedia of Arkansas. It was written by my high school history teacher and a young lady who freelanced at the local paper in our hometown when I was the editor.

Fargo Agricultural School

Geraldine Davidson, curator of the Fargo Agricultural School, shows a scale model of the school (top photo) that she constructed and her photo in the composite for the class of 1947 (bottom photo).


For 30 years, from 1919-1947, Fargo Agricultural School in northern Monroe County was one of the few places African-Amercian students in Monroe County could get an education.

The school was started by Floyd Brown, a graduate of Tuskegee Institute who had studied under Booker T. Washington.

The students lived at the school, learning academics in the morning hours and spending the afternoons learning crafts and skills like woodworking and farming for the boys and cooking and sewing for the girls.

Geraldine Purcell Davidson, a native of the area who graduated from the school in 1947, for many years has been the curator of the Fargo Agricultural School Museum. Located on the campus of the former school, the museum is a sprawling and impressive collection of photographs, school papers, books, and items the students made like tables and uniforms. Mrs. Davidson gives the best museum tours I've ever had.

You'll definitely want to add this museum to the list of places in Arkansas you want to visit. In the meantime, you can read about FAS and its founder, Floyd Brown, at the online Encyclopedia of Arkansas.

Old Marion Anderson High School

The old Marian Anderson High School building (along with the gym and elementary school) in Brinkley has been torn down in recent years.

Located on Grand Avenue in my Eastern Arkansas hometown, the school was where Brinkley's African-American students were educated until integration finally reached us in the early 1970s. Incidentally, the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas case declared that segregated schools were unconstitutional way back in 1954; the infamous Central High School desegregation happened in 1957. Almost 20 years after segregation was found to be unconstitutional in public schools, Brinkley schools were integrated and the Marion Anderson High School was no longer used as such.

Instead, the old building with its high ceilings and hardwood floors became Brinkley's junior high school. It was there that I attended the seventh and eighth grade; I had attended fifth and sixth grade in the former elementary school right there on the same property.

Years later the buildings were deemed unsafe because of asbestos and the seventh and eighth grades were moved to the high school and fifth and sixth grades to the elementary school.

I find it interesting that at the time I was attending the old Marion Anderson High School as Brinkley Junior High, I was aware only of the name of the school. I did not realize that it had been the local high school for African-American students nor did I know who Marion Anderson was.

Forrest City High School building

The old Forrest City High School building is now the district's administration offices.


Built in Classical Revival style in 1915, the original Forrest City High School building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.

Many of its charming original features remain, including the hardwood floors that now slant in places, and the flights of stairs that are worn in the middle from the many years of pounding from young feet on their way to class.

What remains of the building is now used for the local school district’s administrative offices. It’s also the home of the documents chronicling the building’s history.

Old Jamestown school building

The Jamestown school building in Independence County is in excellent shape and is used for community gatherings. The original school bell is still in place.


The 1926 three-room frame school building in Jamestown (near Batesville in Independence County) remarkably still has its original school bell. It was listed in 1992 thanks to the efforts of former student Bubba Burks and others.

The original wood flooring and walls are still there in the building, and old fashioned benches and a piano complete the country schoolhouse decor. A partition that was used to divide the large main room into two smaller classrooms is still in working order.

The old school building is now the Jamestown community center. Dinners, reunions, and the annual Jamestown homecoming are held there. It is for certain that a lot of reminiscing about bygone school days takes place during those gatherings.

Old Maxville school

The old Maxville school building in Sharp County is still in good shape.

The Maxville one-room rock school building in Sharp County has been renovated and is used for storage by Larry Brown, a retired Cave City superintendent.

The mid-1930s Works Progress Administration building has a new roof and vinyl siding on small portions of the exterior.

The first Maxville school was in a log church built in 1875; classes were being held there in the Methodist church by 1871. Another schoolhouse was built around the turn of the century about a mile south of the log church. Built with free local labor on land deeded by Columbus Snow, the school taught children up to eighth grade.

Maxville’s wood schoolhouse burned in 1934 and students held classes in the Methodist church, which had been the first school for the community, while waiting for the new fieldstone school to be built. Located about 300 yards south of the old school, that building was used until 1948 when Maxville consolidated with Cave City.

Poughkeepsie School in Sharp County

The old Poughkeepsie School is a beautiful stone structure in Sharp County.


The 1929 rock school buildings at Poughkeepsie in Sharp County were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.

The main rock building was constructed after the original school burned. Until the new school was completed, elementary school students finished out the term at the Church of Christ and the high school students went to the Baptist church for classes. They utilized the Masonic Lodge space on the second level of the church building.

When it was completed, the new stone building educated students up until 12th grade.

“I went to school there the first day it opened,” Ima Jean Norris pointed out with a smile. She was in the seventh grade then.

Several years afterward, another stone building was constructed and used as the agricultural classroom. A white building behind that was the elementary school.

For years the campus was the site of school reunions. “Big crowds would come from all over,” Norris pointed out.

The Poughkeepsie school served as such until just a few years ago, and now the site is owned by Cornerstone Baptist Church of Mount Pleasant in Izard County. The campus, which has been renamed Camp Cornerstone, is now used for youth camps and other related functions.