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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 12 Ridge Road School
<br /> Orange County, NC
<br /> Alethea Anne Arrington Burt(1902-1986), a Hampton Institute graduate, instructed older youth(fifth
<br /> through seventh grade) and was the school's principal after moving from Currituck County to Hillsboro in
<br /> 1935. Alethea began her career as a physical education teacher in Greensboro, where she met her future
<br /> husband, Moses Cimuel Burt, a World War I veteran who earned a B. S. in agriculture from NC A&T
<br /> College in May 1922. He subsequently studied at Hampton Institute and Cornell University. Following
<br /> the couple's 1929 marriage, they were both public school teachers in Wayne and Currituck counties.
<br /> During Moses Burt's tenure as Orange County's African American extension agent from 1935 until his
<br /> September 1958 retirement, he supported vocational agriculture programs at public schools.22
<br /> The African American community supported the school by assisting with student programs and events
<br /> such as holiday celebrations, raising funds to purchase supplies, and donating food for lunches. The
<br /> school hosted educational and recreational programs and clinics for myriad civic groups and government
<br /> agencies such as the agricultural extension service and health department. The beadboard panel in the
<br /> classroom partition wall was opened during programs. During musical performances and other functions
<br /> attended by community members, collections were taken to subsidize the school's operation. Jones
<br /> Groves Missionary Baptist, Mount Zion AME, and other area congregations also made regular
<br /> donations.23
<br /> Former students provided insight into their tenure at Ridge Road School. Most walked to school from
<br /> farms located between one and two miles away, although bus transportation was provided in the late
<br /> 1940s to those residing a greater distances. After Moses and Alethea Burt started the wood-fueled heating
<br /> stoves in each classroom on cold mornings, older male students gathered wood to feed the fires. Two
<br /> electric lights in each room supplemented light from large windows on the west elevation. The youngest
<br /> students were assigned desks closest to the front(north end) of the south classroom. Teachers actively
<br /> instructed one grade level, assigned students independent work, and moved to the next grade. Children
<br /> gathered for music lessons in the north classroom, where a piano stood on the stage. Some students
<br /> brought lunch, while others ate meals, typically sandwiches or soup,prepared in the small kitchen
<br /> 1940;U. S. Census,population schedules, 1930-1950;marriage records;"Local,"Herald-Sun(Durham),March 12, 1944,p.5;
<br /> "News About Durham Servicemen Received,"Herald-Sun,February 10, 1946,p.9;"Ruth M.Torian,"Durham Sun,February
<br /> 22, 1989,p. C2;"Ruth Torian,"Chapel Hill Newspaper,February 22, 1989,p.9;"Charlie Torian,"Herald-Sun,April 26,
<br /> 1996,p.C2.
<br /> 22 Moses and Alethea's son,Moses C.Burt Jr.,was in September 1955 one of the first three African American first-
<br /> year law students to be admitted to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The three other Black students who
<br /> enrolled in the law school that fall transferred from other programs.U. S. Census,population schedules, 1930-1950;Fred
<br /> McGee,"9 Negro Grad Students May Enter UNC This Fall,"Durham Morning Herald, September 14, 1955,p. 1;"New Negro
<br /> Agent,"News and Observer,September 7, 1958,p. 5;"M. C.Burt,"Chapel Hill Weekly,March 21, 1965,p. 8;Kim Ring
<br /> Darnofall,"Alethea Burt,"News of Orange,February 23, 1978,p. 3B;Rosetta Austin Moore, The Impact of Slavery on the
<br /> Education of Blacks in Orange County,North Carolina, 1619-1970(Morrisville,North Carolina: Lulu Publishing Services,
<br /> 2015), 130-131.
<br /> 23 Louis K.Watkins,telephone conversation with Heather Fearnbach,February 25,2023.
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