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<br /> NPS Form 10-900-a OMB Approval No.1024-0018
<br /> (8-86)
<br /> United States Department of the Interior
<br /> National Park Service
<br /> National Register of Historic Places
<br /> Continuation Sheet
<br /> Section number 8 Page 6 Ridge Road School
<br /> Orange County, NC
<br /> remained comparable through the 1859-1860 term, when fifty-six schools in fifty-two districts served
<br /> 2,059 of the county's 4,237 white pupils. Terms were short and facilities primitive. Private academies
<br /> provided more comprehensive courses of study for white students but charged tuition that was cost-
<br /> prohibitive for the average family. In rare instances, free Black youth attended private North Carolina
<br /> schools before 1865, but that was not the case in Orange County. Private schools for white youth
<br /> operating in 1867 included Hillsboro Military Academy supervised by General R. E. Colston, Cedar
<br /> Grove Academy managed by its founder Samuel W. Hughes, Little River Academy established by J. L.
<br /> Brower and W. S. Guthrie, the Nash-Kollock boarding school for girls in Hillsboro headed by Chief
<br /> Justice Frederick Nash's daughters Sally and Maria Nash and their cousin Sarah Kollock, and Miss M. P.
<br /> Magnum's boarding school for girls in Flat River.6
<br /> Although Reconstruction policies included the promise of universal access to quality academic
<br /> instruction, this pledge was not fulfilled. The Orange County Board of Superintendents was reconstituted
<br /> as the Orange County Board of Education(OCBE) in 1872, at which time 1,754 African American and
<br /> 3,080 white youth resided in fifty-two school districts. In 1874, there were two public schools for
<br /> Hillsboro Township's 549 African American children and six public and seven private schools for 668
<br /> white children.' The North Carolina General Assembly, mandated by the state's 1868 constitution to
<br /> provide free public education for all children, adopted in 1875 an amendment that allowed for the creation
<br /> of"separate but equal" schools. As educational facilities relied on inequitably distributed local funding,
<br /> this policy left Black students with inferior buildings and supplies, shorter terms, and fewer instructors.
<br /> Despite these challenges, African American leaders promoted education as a means of realizing individual
<br /> potential and strengthening communities by facilitating access to future opportunities. The State Colored
<br /> Education Convention, composed of 140 delegates from forty counties, met in Raleigh in 1877 to plan
<br /> systemic educational improvements. Politicians in Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh, Washington, and
<br /> Winston soon sponsored initiatives to create the state's first Black graded schools. Aspiring African
<br /> American teachers undertook advanced studies at normal schools established by religious denominations
<br /> and private entities in Charlotte, Concord, Elizabeth City, Fayetteville, Franklinton, Greensboro,
<br /> Goldsboro, Plymouth, Raleigh, Salisbury, and Winston.8
<br /> 6 Emma King,"Some Aspects of the Works of the Society of Friends for Negro Education in North Carolina,"The
<br /> North Carolina Historical Review,Volume I,Number 4,October 1924,403;Jeffrey J. Crow,Paul D.Escott and Flora J.
<br /> Hatley,A History of African Americans in North Carolina(Raleigh:North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, 1992),
<br /> 153;U. S. Census, 1860;Hugh Lefler and Paul Wager,Orange County, 1752-1952(Chapel Hill: Orange Print Shop, 1953),
<br /> 139;Levi Branson,Branson's North Carolina Business Directory 1867(Raleigh:Levi Branson, 1867), 87;Ruth Blackwelder,
<br /> The Age of Orange(Charlotte:William Loftin, 1961), 125, 130-131, 138, 146-147.
<br /> 7 U. S. Census, 1870;Levi Branson,Branson's North Carolina Business Directory 1872(Raleigh: Levi Branson,
<br /> 1872), 180;Orange County Board of Education(hereafter abbreviated OCBE),meeting minutes,April 7, 1873,and 1874
<br /> census of children.
<br /> 8 Crow,et. al.,A History ofAfrican-Americans in North Carolina,79, 81, 100-102, 153-155;Hugh Victor Brown,A
<br /> History of the Education of Negroes in North Carolina(Raleigh:Irving Swain Press,Inc., 1961),32-34.
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