Esmont High School was a segregated school for African American students in Albemarle County, Virginia from 1904[1] to 1951. This and the Albemarle Training School were the two high schools for Black students in the County.This school served a small rural population, graduating fourteen students in 1942 and nine students in 1943.[2] In 1944 the school expanded from two to three teachers and developed a departmental structure for the first time.[3] In 1951, its student population moved to Burley High School (Charlottesville, Virginia). Nine years after the school closed, in 1960, Yancey Elementary School opened on the same site.[1]
Curriculum and Faculty
editThe school served students in elementary and secondary grades.
Faculty Members
India Sargeant (d. 1922)
Harry Washington (1935–1936) also Choir Director[4]
Isaac D. Faulkner (1941–1942)
Virginia K Yancey (1944-)
School Library
editThe school had a library, to which twenty-two books were added in the spring of 1944.[5]
Student life
editThe school's a capella choir competed in Petersburg in 1936.[4] In 1944, a Student Council was founded.[3] The student newspaper in 1944 was the Esmont High School Journal, which covered news for all school grades in Esmont; it was edited by T. J. Sellers, who went on to become a newspaper publisher in Virginia and New York. The school competed in Oratory with other area Black schools such as the Lightfoot Training School, Orange County Training School, and Abrams High School.[6] It put on its first operetta, Mary Hale Woolsey's "Star Flower," in 1944, with a cast of 13 students.[6] There were multiple boys' and girls' singing quartets at the school this same year.[6]
Athletics
editThe baseball team played against Charlottesville's Jefferson High School.[6]
Administration
editPrincipal Henry L. Summerall (1941–1942)[7]
Principal Isaac D. Faulkner (1942–1943)[2]
The school had a Parent-Teacher Association.[3]
References
edit- ^ a b Bragg, Michael (11 June 2017). "Yancey's proud past, uncertain future". The Daily Progress. Retrieved 2018-08-20.
- ^ a b "Esmont High School Class of 1943". scottsvillemuseum.com. Retrieved 2018-08-20.
- ^ a b c "Are We Progressing?". Esmont High School Journal. 18 May 1944.
- ^ a b "Esmont High School's A Cappella Choir, 1935-1936". scottsvillemuseum.com. Retrieved 2018-08-20.
- ^ "Library News". Esmont High School Journal. 18 May 1944.
- ^ a b c d "School News". Esmont High School Journal. 18 May 1944.
- ^ "Esmont High School Senior Class of 1942". scottsvillemuseum.com. Retrieved 2018-08-20.