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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 13 Ridge Road School
<br /> Orange County, NC
<br /> adjacent to the south classroom. Youth contributed tomatoes, corn, and other vegetables for soups cooked
<br /> on an oil-burning stove. Older students carried buckets of water for drinking, cooking, and cleaning from
<br /> Walter and Maggie Torian's to a water cooler on the porch. Some children brought drinking glasses;
<br /> others used a common dipper to drink from the cooler. Two small weatherboarded, two-seat outhouses
<br /> painted white were located south of the school at the edge of the woods. Children played baseball,
<br /> softball, and other games on the lawn surrounding the school. Since the school system did not provide
<br /> athletic equipment, students made their own balls and bats. Community members hung swings from
<br /> trees. Moses Burt guided students in horticultural activities such as planting trees on the property.24
<br /> Records related to the school's operation are sparse. During the 1934-1935 term, fifty-one of eighty
<br /> enrolled youth regularly attended classes. Enrollment remained relatively consistent. Daily attendance
<br /> averaged fifty-seven of seventy-five enrolled children in 1948-1949. The sixth- and seventh- grade
<br /> contingent was the largest, comprising forty students. Meager instructional equipment included a globe,
<br /> United States flag, word cards, art supplies, and a 149-volume library. Alethea Burt organized a junior
<br /> 4-H club during the 1949-1950 term, when sixty-four children enrolled at the school. Older youth
<br /> remained the majority during the 1950-1951 term, comprising forty-five of seventy-five enrolled
<br /> students.25 From May 1949 until April 1951, the Ridge Road school district advisory committee
<br /> appointed by the OCBE comprised A. J. Breeze, James Clark, and Otho Thompson.26
<br /> Ridge Road and other small rural schools were closed and sold during the early 1950s. In September
<br /> 1951, children who had attended Ridge Road School were assigned to Central High School in Hillsboro,
<br /> which provided instruction for all grades of African American youth. Cedar Grove School, completed in
<br /> fall 1951, and Efland-Cheeks School, finished in fall 1952, served elementary-grade African American
<br /> children. White youth attended Hillsboro and Aycock schools for all grades as well as six elementary
<br /> schools throughout the county. Alethea Burt and Ruth Torian, reassigned with their students, taught
<br /> elementary grades at Central High School. Alethea retired at the conclusion of the 1968-1969 academic
<br /> term. After the Orange County School system was fully desegregated in fall 1969, the Central High
<br /> 24 The date of electric wiring installation at Ridge Road School is unknown. When the OCBE approved electrification
<br /> of five other rural African American schools in January 1948,community members were asked to fund half of the cost. OCBE
<br /> meeting minutes,January 5, 1948;Kim Ring Darnofall,"Alethea Burt,"News of Orange,February 23, 1978,p.3B;Interviews
<br /> conducted by Myrtle Garth with former Ridge Road School students Betty Stewart and Sylvester Ross on July 20,2021;John
<br /> David Jordan on July 27,2021;James B.Watkins on July 29,2021;Doris Yvonne Brooks Johnson and Nabethel Brooks on
<br /> August 4,2021;Louis K.Watkins on August 17,2021;Reverend Charles Thompson on August 26,2021; Louis K.Watkins,
<br /> telephone conversation with Heather Fearnbach,February 25,2023;Doris Yvonne Brooks Johnson,telephone conversation
<br /> with Heather Fearnbach,February 28,2023.
<br /> 25"Orange County Education Data for 1934-1935,"and"Ridge Road School,"Principal's Annual Elementary School
<br /> Reports, 1948-1949, 1949-1950,and 1950-1951,North Carolina Department of Public Instruction,Division of General
<br /> Education,Orange County, State Archives of North Carolina,Raleigh. The latter three documents are the only principal's
<br /> reports for Ridge Road School on file for the duration of the school's operation.
<br /> 26 OCBE meeting minutes,May 26, 1949,April 2, 1951.
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