The Mount Meigs Colored Institute (also Montgomery County Training School) was a

reform school A reform school was a Prison, penal institution, generally for teenagers, mainly operating between 1830 and 1900. In the United Kingdom and its colonies, reformatory, reformatories (commonly called reform schools) were set up from 1854 onward f ...

founded by Cornelia Bowen for African-Americans in

Mount Meigs, Alabama Mount Meigs (also Evansville or Mount Pleasant) is an unincorporated area, unincorporated community in Montgomery County, Alabama, Montgomery County in the U.S. state, state of Alabama. The Mount Meigs Campus, a juvenile correctional facility an ...

, an unincorporated community in

Montgomery County, Alabama Montgomery County is a county located in the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 census, its population was 228,954, making it the seventh-most populous county in Alabama. Its county seat is Montgomery, the state capital. Montgomery County ...

History

The school was founded in 1888 as a single-room school; four years later, its students moved into a two-story facility built for the purpose. The work of constructing the new building was done by male students. The school's models were

Tuskegee Institute Tuskegee University (Tuskegee or TU; formerly known as the Tuskegee Institute) is a Private university, private, Historically black colleges and universities, historically black land-grant university in Tuskegee, Alabama, United States. It was f ...

and

Hampton Institute Hampton University is a private, historically black, research university in Hampton, Virginia, United States. Founded in 1868 as Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School, it was established by Black and White leaders of the American Missiona ...

, and it advocated vocational schooling, teaching such skills as farming, carpentry, blacksmithing—the hope was that the school would be able to provide its own food and that students would contribute to white and black communities. Besides the normal classes of instruction, the school taught farming, blacksmithing, and wheelwriting to boys, and sewing and cooking to girls. Students at the school also farmed the nine acres of land that were under cultivation and grew crops included cotton, sugar cane, corn, peas, and potatoes. All of which, besides cotton which was sold, were used by the school. The board that ran the school consisted of twelve people: six whites, all from out of state, and six blacks, all local, including

Booker T. Washington Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, and orator. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the primary leader in the African-American community and of the contemporary Black elite#United S ...

. For all practical purposes the school in its day-to-day operation was run by African-Americans. It proved harder than expected to make the school as financially independent as was envisioned; support came through the efforts of Bowen, who proved a tireless fundraiser and got the Alabama Federation of Colored Women's Clubs to support the school. With their help additional acreage was acquired; the clubs were particularly appalled by the numbers of black young men in the area who ended up incarcerated in adult prisons, and supporting the school allowed young boys to stay out of prison—one such student was

Satchel Paige Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige (July 7, 1906 – June 8, 1982) was an American professional baseball pitcher who played in Negro league baseball and Major League Baseball (MLB). His career spanned five decades and culminated with his induction in ...

. By 1908 a second institution was opened, the later state-run

Mount Meigs Campus The Mount Meigs Campus is a juvenile corrections facility of the Alabama Department of Youth Services located in the Mount Meigs community, and in the city of Montgomery, Alabama; the campus serves as the agency's administrative headquarters.

. The school was destroyed by a fire in 1948; at that time, it was known as the Montgomery County Training School. After the fire, the Montgomery County Board of Education decided to consolidate the school with the People's Village School, which was founded by Georgia Washington. The new school was rebuilt on the site of the People's Village School and named Georgia Washington High School. In 1974, the school was converted to a junior high school and renamed Georgia Washington Middle School. In 2018, the town Pike Road paid $9.85 million for the school campus, agreeing to the terms that Georgia Washington’s name would stay on the school and also that her grave, which is on the school’s property, be maintained. The school is now the

Pike Road High School Pike Road High School is a public school in Pike Road, Alabama, United States, a part of Pike Road Schools. The school site was home to the People's Village School, later renamed Georgia Washington Middle School, until it was acquired by the s ...

References

{{Coord, 32, 22, 43, N, 86, 5, 5, W, display=title Buildings and structures in Montgomery County, Alabama Educational institutions established in 1888 1888 establishments in Alabama Historically segregated African-American schools in Alabama