Reflections: Georgia African American Historic Preservation Network, 2018 November/December

Volume XV, No. 2 November/December 2018
By Contributor Vernon F. Clarke
Documentarian/Filmmaker/ Lecturer
Jeanes Supervisors: Unsung Master Teachers That Changed Education
different and unequal education systems
were established in the South where Black
schools were inferior to white schools in
almost all respects: facilities, textbooks,
teachers, resources, etc. However, even
during these difficult and harsh times there
were individuals and groups committed to
providing the best education possible for
Black children. One such group was the
Jeanes Supervisors Program.
Anna T. Jeanes was a wealthy
Philadelphian Quaker woman who founded
the Anna T. Jeanes Foundation, also known
as the Negro Rural School Fund, in 1907
with the stated mission of “improving
We took straw and made bricks, said
Narvie J. Harris, a former Jeanes
Supervisor in DeKalb County, Georgia.1
The Jeanes Supervisors were “master
teachers” who had a profound impact on
countless southern Black children through
education for more than 60 years during
the time of Jim Crow and segregation.2
Established by the Anna T. Jeanes
Foundation this group of “unsung” African
American educators operated in Georgia
and 14 other states, as well as overseas,
and worked to improve the economic,
political, and social conditions of the
rural communities that they served.3
The
fabric of their story is one of commitment,
determination, and often heart-wrenching
struggles.
Q u a l it y an d e qu a l e du c at i on
is considered inalienable right by
the American people and viewed as
the path to both a better life and to
becoming a productive member of society.
Unfortunately, the ideal of an equal
education for all has not been the reality
for African Americans. In the period
from the early 1900s to 1960s two very
1 Clarke Vernon F., We Took Straw and Made
Bricks: The Jeanes Supervisors documentary. Directed by Vernon F. Clarke, Atlanta: Breaking New
Ground Producation, 1995.
2 Anderson, James D., The Education of Blacks in
the South 186-1935, University of North Carolina
Press, Chapel Hill, 1988, 156.
3 NASC Interim History Writing Committee, The
Jeanes Story: A Chapter in the History of American
Education 1908-1968, Atlanta, Southern Education
Foundation, 1979, 11.
Cover of Historical Narrative published 1975.
Courtesy Vernon F. Clarke
Southern rural schools for Negroes.”4
The
Foundation was one of the first established
for the sole purpose of improving Black
public schools.5
The Foundation came
into being after Booker T. Washington
approached Anna Jeanes for $10,000 to
build a dining room at Tuskegee Institute in
Alabama. She however refused, stating that
the money should be used for more pressing
needs primarily the improvement of rural
education.6
Prior to her death in 1907 Anna
Jeanes provided $1 million to create the Anna
T. Jeanes Foundation and appointed Booker
T. Washington as Chairman of the Board of
Trustees. This appointment in itself was an
important and significant event given the
racial climate of the country at this time.
Without a doubt the thought of having Blacks
controlling money and resources for Black
schools was very daring in 1907.
While the first Jeanes Teacher was
employed in Virginia, Georgia had one
of the largest group of Supervisors who
worked throughout the state.7
As their responsibilities expanded,
the Jeanes Teachers eventually became
“Supervisors.” This program in
4 Ibid 18.
5 Anderson, 158.
6 Clarke, We Took Straw and Made Bricks: The Jeanes
Supervisors documentary, 1995.
7 More than 350 Jeanes teachers and supervisor
served in Georgia according to the Georgia Association of Jeanes Curriculum Directors, Jeanes
Supervision in Georgia Schools, A Guiding Light in
Education: A History of the Program from 1908-1975,
Atlanta, Southern Education Foundation 1975, Index
281
2
By Special Contributor Gylbert Coker, Ph.D.
Executive Director, The Mitchell-Young-Anderson Musuem
enough money to send for Emma and
their babies. They lived in a small house
on Jackson Street going towards the train
station. Sam then built a two-story family
house at 408 Monroe Street where the
family would live.
During this time, wealthy Northerners
and Midwesterners were seeking southern
destinations offering relief from winter
cold, the pressures of industrialized urban
life, and pulmonary diseases.5
In the 1870s
northern sportsmen formed relationships
with whites and blacks in Thomas County
who aided their quest to build a personal
hunting paradise.6
Other visitors, perhaps
not as affluent, wintered in the city’s several
grand hotels or stayed in smaller hotels
and boarding houses. 7
Restaurants, bars,
shops, doctor’s and lawyer’s offices began
to open, resulting in jobs for many African
Americans who lived in the Stevens Street
neighborhood. Most of these jobs did
not pay black workers enough money to
5 Harrison, Ann, “Thomasville’s Pines were preserved
during ‘resort era’, August 21, 2014 Tallahassee Democrat, part of the USA Today Network.
6 Brock, Julia, Northern Hunting Plantations in the
Red Hills Region, 1870-1930, Ph.D. Candidate, 2010
Department of History of University of California,
Santa Barbara.
7 Rogers, William W., Transition To The Twentieth
Century: Thomas County, Georgia, 1900-1920, 2002
Sentry Press, 167 and 253.
purchase land or build their own homes
but they earned enough to pay for a
room, food, and clothing.8

In 1887 the house at 319 Oak Street
became available and Emma and Sam
Young purchased it with the intention of
turning it into a boarding house. Many
people in the neighborhood would rent
rooms in their homes to earn extra
money; this house would have been the
largest boarding house in the district.
According to family oral history, Emma
was a no-nonsense manager of the house.
People were expected to pay their money
on time. If they did not, she put them out.
Men were not allowed to bring women
friends into their rooms. Roomers were
given a breakfast and a dinner, clean
sheets, a wash area, and outhouse.
By the early 20th century Florida had
become fashionable. Thomasville was no
longer “the” winter resort. Winter visitors
became few. Businesses began to close
their doors. Those in the Stevens Street
District were hit twice by fewer visitors
to Thomasville and by competition from
the Jewish shops, Greek restaurants, and
African American owned businesses on
8 Anderson, Jule, untitled draft of family history, c.
2010, Mitchell Young Anderson Museum Collection.
The Mitchell Young Anderson House is now a heritage museum. Photo Credit: Meiissa Jest/HPD
The History (and Future) of a Boarding House: The Mitchell Young Anderson Museum
The house on 319 Oak Street
in Thomasville is an historical
and cultural gem. It represents the
entrepreneurial ingenuity of Sam Young and
his wife Emma Mitchell while revealing an
aspect of the economic evolution that took
place specifically in the African American
neighborhood, today known as the Stevens
Street Historic District.
Following the end of the Civil War
(1861-1865), the land just west of Stevens
Street that sloped downward toward two
creeks was subdivided. Freed Africans
from Thomasville and surrounding counties
were encouraged to settle in this area as
it was considered undesirable by most
Thomasville whites since it was low lying
and the Atlantic and Gulf Railroad (now
the CSX Railroad), completed in 1868,
stretched through the area.1
As with most family history, there are
pieces in time that are missing. What is
known is that Emma Mitchell was born
after the Civil War in 1868 on her father’s
plantation which stood near Ochlocknee
church.2
Sam Young was born in 1866.3
It
is not known how or where Sam and Emma
met, but they did. They fell in love and
got married in 1882.4
According to family
accounts, Sam had skills as a carpenter
and moved to Thomasville where he made
1 National Register of Historic Places, The Stevens
Street Historic District, Thomasville, Thomas County,
National Register #01000500, March 2001, 8.
2 Mitchell Young Anderson Museum Collection,
Charlie Young letter to Jule Anderson, December 19,
1965. Emma Mitchell’s father, Lemond or Lemuel,
was the son of his white master, Lenna Mitchell and
his enslaved mother Waddie. Master Mitchell gave
Lemond his own plantation near Ochlocknee GA
where he raised his family: His wife, Matilda, four
children including Emma. Matilda dies in 1869 during
childbirth.
3 Anderson, Jule, untitled draft of family history, c.
2010, Mitchell Young Anderson Museum Collection.
4 Young, Charles “Reminiscences of Charlie Young for
Bill Rogers”, 1964; Family oral history incorporated in
Thomas County:1865-1900, William Warren Rogers.
Tallahassee: Florida State University Press, 1973.
3
the West Jackson Street, referred to as The
Bottom.
Sam and Emma Young’s son Charlie
married Carrie McNair on March 22,
1908.
Charlie inherited the 319 Oak Street
house from his parents in 1911 and used
the house as both his residence and as a
boarding house. According to the family,
Charlie’s brother Joseph, who had been
given 315 Oak Street next door, had a
car. When their African American guests
arrived in town, Joseph drove to the
rail station, picked up the visitors, and
brought them to the boarding house. If
all the rooms were full at Mitchell Young
house, the remaining visitors stayed in
Joseph’s house. From 1930 through 1945
or so, Virginia, Charlie’s daughter, and her
husband Essic Anderson took over the
responsibilities of the house, renaming
it Rosebud Tourist Home in this “City
of Roses.” 9
They rented rooms to Black
entertainers such as the cast members
of Silas Green from New Orleans, a
traveling minstrel show, The Southerners,
a male vocal group, as well as sports and
entertainment figures, railroad men and
traveling salesmen.10 The doors remained
9 Thomasville Magazine online, https://www.thomasvillemagazine.com/georgias-rose-city/ accessed
October 31, 2018.
10 Anderson, Jule, untitled draft of family history, c.
2010, Mitchell Young Anderson Museum Collection.
l to r: Joseph Young, Charlie Young, Carrie McNair
(Charlie’s wife), c. 1910. Courtesy of Gylbert Coker
open until 1949 when the Imperial
Hotel, the first and only African
American hotel opened in Thomasville.
Virginia continued to live in the house
with her two daughters, Jule and Brenda
after her husband died. It was not
until the 1990s when Jule Anderson
returned from California that the house
was reopened as an Afrocentric bed &
breakfast.
Jule Anderson died in 2014. In her
will, she directed that the house, owned
by her family for 127 years, become a
museum that reminds the public of the
history of the boarding house and of
those early days when the Stevens Street
neighborhood was filled with promise,
hope, and ambition.
Today, the Mitchell-Young-Anderson
(MYA) museum houses a collection of
early 20th century family heirlooms,
furnishings, and material artifacts
and the vast personal collection
of art, books and music recordings
bequeathed by founder Jule Anderson.
The museum is also a movie venue,
showing films written, directed, and
performed by African American people.
MYA plans to also present films made
in other countries within the African
Diaspora such as Brazil, Jamaica, and
Nigeria as well as Afrocentric films
produced in Europe.
The MYA museum was awarded a
scholarship to participate in the Getty
Leadership Institute (GLI) in Claremont,
California this summer. The program is
an international training dedicated to
developing individual leadership skills
and strategic planning among museum
professionals. Since its founding in the
late 1990s, the GLI has served more than
1800 museum professionals from more
than 40 countries worldwide.11 The GLI
program provided each participant with
a mentor, a coach as well as professors of
Behavioral and Organizational Sciences,
Innovation, Entrepreneurship and
Marketing, and Management. The MYA
museum was the smalllest site represented
in this summer’s class which included Yale
University Art Gallery, the Smithsonian
Institute, and other museum as far away
as Sweden, Austrilia, China, and Kenya.
Since returning home, I have organized
a new board and, with them, revised the
MYA mission and created an “elevator”
statement. The GLI fellow directors from
other instituttions helped me to envision
the future for the MYA museum and to
recognize the importance of this boarding
house owned by Black people for Black
people since 1887 as a valuable part of
American history.
11 The Getty Leadership Institute, About GLI,
https://gli.cgu.edu . accessed October 31, 2018
Gylbert Coker, front row, 2nd from right, with the Getty Leadership Institute 2018 Class.
Courtesy of Getty Leadership Insitute/ Melody Kanschat
4
Carver Village, Columbus’s First Post WWII Segregated Neighborhood
Compiled by Students of Cultural, Urban Geography and GIS courses at Columbus State University and CSU Professor Amanda Rees
Located in Midtown section of
Columbus, the Carver Heights
subdivision stretches over 84 acres and
includes approximately 430 homes; the first
home was built in 1946. This community
was the first African American suburb
built in Columbus after World War II. 1
Established just outside the city’s eastern
boundary, the location of Carver Heights
reflects that of other southern segregated
suburbs. This contrasted with black,
segregated suburbs in the North, where
expansion typically occurred into older
existing white neighborhoods.2
Segregated suburban developments
constructed for African American residents
have been divided in two major types:
suburbs that combined residential and work
spaces and welcomed blue collar residents;
and suburbs developed for a small but
growing black middle class.3
Carver Heights
was built and marketed to returning
African American veterans. It includes two
primarily residential architectural styles
that represents a unique period of building
1 Wade, Joyce. 2017.“16. Carver Heights Subdivision”
Columbus State University Archives [Online]Georgia.
http://digitalarchives.columbusstate.edu/16-carverheights-subdivision. Accessed November 12, 2018.
2 Little, Margaret Ruth. 2012.“Getting the American
Dream for Themselves Postwar Modern Subdivisions
for African Americans in Raleigh, North Carolina.”
Buildings & Landscapes: Journal of the Vernacular
Architecture Forum. 19(1):73-86.
3 Wiese, Andrew, 2004. Places of Their Own: African
American Suburbanization in the Twentieth Century.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
in post-war America: the American Small
House and the American (or California)
Ranch.
At a time of institutional segregation,
Carver Heights gave African Americans
access to the American dream of homeownership. The land was platted for a
series of post-WWII cottages, today
known as the American Small House,
interspersed with some early ranch
homes.4
Amongst the single-family homes
are multiple duplexes and one apartment
building. In addition, the subdivision
included a commercial section where folks
could buy gas, rent a motel room, launder
clothes and grab a drive-through meal.
This new subdivision also honored
African American leaders and institutions
as it bears the name of renown scientist
George Washington Carver who
conducted his research 40 miles west at
the Tuskegee Institute of Alabama. There
are streets named for Carver and Booker
T. Washington, co-founders of Tuskegee
Institute and historically black colleges
and universities such as Fisk University
and Morehouse College.
Across the nation, the American
Small House period emerged during the
Great Depression and reached its climax
4 Georgia Historic Preservation Division, “The
American Small House” presentation [Online]
https://georgiashpo.org/sites/default/files/hpd/pdf/
AmericanSmallHouse_0.pdf Accessed October 17,
2018.
after WWII when labor and materials
were in short supply.5 This building type
met a clear national goal to provide
well-designed, well-built, affordable,
single-family homes. Many of the Carver
Heights homes were built using a brick
facade, an inexpensive feature at the time,
with modest porches or stoops adorned
with decorative iron porch columns.
The two-bedroom home was the most
common, as it was the smallest house
that could be guaranteed a mortgage.6
At the end of World War II, some of
the 100,000 African American soldiers
stationed at Fort Benning were ready to
settle down. After serving their country,
these veterans qualified for home
loans guaranteed by the Servicemen’s
Readjustment Act of 1944 (GI Bill).7
Loans could only be used for new
construction, which meant that veterans
could not use this resource to re-invest
in existing buildings because lenders
deemed rehabilitation a financial risk.
Until the mid-1960s, suburb developers
could legally discriminate against African
American and Jewish home buyers. Thus,
many suburbs were only open to white
homeowners. Carver Heights symbolizes
strong leadership of developer Edwin
Edward Farley and his colleagues and
the remarkable opportunity for African
Americans advancement. Carver
Heights became home to the families of
active duty military members stationed
at Fort Benning and to veterans who
became part of the post-war labor force
as teachers, housemaids, ministers, and
employees in local businesses, mills and
factories.
Many owners planted vegetable
gardens and fruit trees. Morehouse Street
was home to the Maddox family. Retired
Sgt 1st Class Arthur Alvoid Maddox
was a former member of Fort Benning’s
School for Bakers and Cooks and ran a
garden nursery from his home.8

At least eight additional segregated
subdivisions were subsequently
5 Ibid.
6 Wiese 2004.
7 Ibid.
8 Oral Interview with Emma Maddox Anekwe
(daughter), October 28, 2018.
A typical American Small House in Carver Heights neighborhood, Columbus Georgia
Courtesy of Amanda Rees/Columbus Community Geography Center
5
constructed in Columbus including Willis
Plaza, Washington Heights, Bel Mar, Quail
Creek, East Carver Heights, Cedar Hills,
Dawson Estates and finally Mount Vernon.9

AfterWW II Black civic leaders saw these
separate suburban communities as a source
of black improvement and as a solution to
often-wretched current conditions. This
contrasts with the North, where white
civic leaders contained black housing
development to the central city.
Carver Heights was the home of its
developer E.E. Farley (circa 1902–1956) and
his wife Ella. The Farleys were successful
business people and owned the Farley Realty
Company which sold property in Carver
Heights.
In 1954 Farley moved his family from the
heart of Columbus’s African American
commercial and residential community
downtown to the new Carver Heights
subdivision.
The Farleys regularly rented out rooms
to newly trained school teachers from
Tuskegee relocating to Columbus. As Fort
Benning offered only 4-5 homes that could
be rented by black soldiers, others in the
community rented rooms to newly located
soldiers and their families10 The community
opened their homes to newly relocated folks
seeking to make a new home in the city.
Farley was active within the broader
9 Oral Interview with Emma Maddox Anekwe, Carver
Heights resident, October 29, 2018.
10 Ibid.
Columbus community. He led the local
chapter of the NAACP. He also served as
executive secretary of the Army and Navy
YMCA at Fort Benning.
His membership within the local
African American fraternal organizations
allowed him to work alongside other
influential civil rights leaders such as
Dr. Thomas H. Brewer, Primus King,
and A. J. McClung. In 1925 Farley
was instrumental in funding critical
improvements to the 9th Street YMCA
established in 1907. In 1941 his personal
appeal to the wealthy African American
Columbus business woman Elizabeth
“Lizzie” Lunsford yielded $15,000 of the
$20,000 needed to fund the new African
American USO. Farley, Dr. Brewer, and
other prominent local African Americans
orchestrated the inaugural football game
between Tuskegee and Morehouse held
at the city’s Memorial Stadium in 1936.
Today, the fall football classic remains
a staple social event in Columbus. The
stadium was renamed the A. J. McClung
Memorial Stadium in 2002. 11
Farley only lived in his Carver
Heights home for two years when he
died of a heart attack in 1956. Being
an astute businesswoman herself, Mrs.
Farley continued their real estate business
until selling it in 1971. The business was
purchased by Booker Edmonds and
continues under the name EdmondsFarley Realty.
The Carver Heights Motel, built in
the early 1950s, is one-story building
laid out in a V- shape and offered 12
small en-suite rooms. It was constructed
at the same time as the homes in the
subdivision. Five contiguous lots were
assembled to form a small triangular
commercial district on the development’s
western boundary that included the
motel, a small grocery store, a gas station,
and a drive-through restaurant. This
business center made the segregated
community remarkably self-sufficient.
The Negro Travelers’ Green Book
(started in 1936 by Victor Hugo Green)
featured Carvery Heights Motel among
those lodgings, restaurants, and other
services that would welcome African
11 Nicholson, Klaus, ActiveRain.com blog; May
30, 2007 https://activerain.com/blogsview/111441/
columbus-ga---fort-benning---the-a-j--mcclungmemorial-stadium; accessed November 12, 2018
American travelers in 1956.12 It was one
of three places that provided lodging for
African Americans in Columbus; the
others were the Lowe’s Hotel and the 9th
Street YMCA - both located downtown
in what is now known as the Liberty
District. Today, the Carver Heights
Motel is the only building in the city left
of the three Green Book listings.
While the Carver Heights motel
maintained its service as a motel into the
1960s, it also played an important role
as a community center. During the years
1958 to 1961 polio paralyzed almost
14,000 people in the US. 13 Columbus
doctors sought to inoculate residents
in May 1958 and set up a clinic at the
Carver Heights motel to offer the polio
vaccine to everyone under 40 years of
age in the neighborhood.
This article was compiled from research
conducted for the Martin Luther King Jr.
Outdoor Learning Trail interpretive history
project through a partnership between the
Columbus Community Geography Center
and Turn Around Columbus. Dr. Amanda
Rees, Professor of Geography at Columbus
State University coordinates the Columbus
Community Geography Center and led this
project. Visit https://history.columbusstate.
edu/columbuscommunitygeography.php
12 Green, V. H. 1956, The Negro Travelers’ Green
Book. New York: Victor H. Green & Company.
13 Surveillance of Polipmyelitis in the United
States, 1958-1961 Decenber 1962. Pulbic Health
Reports Vol.77 No. 12 pp.1011-1020 https://www.
jstor.org/stable/4591692?seq=1#metadata_info_
tab_contents. Accessed on line November 12, 2018
Columbus civic leader E.E. Farley (c. 1902-
1956) Courtesy of Columbus Public Library/
Geneaology Room
The Negro Traveler’s Green Book. 1956
Courtesy of Amanda Rees/Columbus Community Geography Center
6
Tuskeegee Airmen’s Home Anchors West Atlanta Preservation Initiative
Special report by contributor Ben Sutton, Director of Preservation, Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation
When Edward Johnson moved to
Atlanta in 1947, he arrived in
a city that was growing and changing
at a rapid pace. The post-World War
II population boom, along with new
demographic shifts and the building
economic and political power in
the African American community
were reshaping large portions of the
city. On the West Side, black owned
businesses and neighborhoods were
growing – particularly around the
intersection of Hunter and Ashby
Streets (now MLK Jr. Drive and
Joseph E. Lowry Blvd.) – to rival the
historic Auburn Avenue business
district on the east side of town.
Mr. Johnson, who served as a flight
instructor in the Tuskegee Airman
during World War II, pursued a career
as an electrician and became the first African American Licensed
Master electrician in Atlanta. He started his own company,
Johnson & Wood Electric (founded with a fellow Tuskegee
Airman), and grew his business out of a storefront on Hunter
Street. He married Harriett May Robinson, an Atlanta native
and Spelman graduate, and their family built a charming ranch
house on Harwell Street on one of the few undeveloped lots next
to the railroad tracks in the historic
Washington Park neighborhood.
The couple raised three daughters
and put them all through college.
Mr. Johnson served as a deacon at
Friendship Baptist Church, the same
church where Mrs. Johnson has been
baptized. Mrs. Johnson, after her
girls were older, returned to school
and earned a Masters in Education,
teaching kindergarten in Atlanta
Public Schools for several years. The
Johnson family’s story is an example
of the rich fabric of the AfricanAmerican community during this
era: a strong middle class community
that served as a foundation for the
political leadership that arose from
these neighborhoods during the Civil Rights Movement.
Seventy years after Mr. Johnson first moved to Atlanta, the city
is experiencing another tumultuous era of growth. The region
is the third fastest growing metropolitan area in the country,
with much of that growth occurring within the city limits. The
Beltline, a major infrastructure and development project, is
repurposing the same railroad tracks that ran beside the Johnson
house into a citywide trail and park system. Development has
boomed throughout Atlanta, and the west side, after decades of
disinvestment that followed its peak in the 50s and 60s, is feeling
the pressure. Throughout Atlanta
important historic resources are
being threatened and lost on a regular
basis, but the Westside seems to be in
particular peril, with older residents
being squeezed by housing costs and
speculative investors that show no
understanding of the neighborhoods’
vital history.
Recognizing these challenges,
the Georgia Trust has launched the
Westside Preservation Initiative,
which seeks to promote historic
preservation in Atlanta through the
rehabilitation of historic houses and
neighborhoods. By engaging residents
and building partnerships, the Trust
seeks to empower neighborhoods
to preserve their sense of culture,
property, and place. The projects
will also set an example for appropriate preservation in the city
of Atlanta, proving the viability of responsible and incremental
community investment and housing affordability through the
rehabilitation of historic housing stock.
Working closely with the Johnson family, the Trust has
purchased three properties in West Atlanta – the house that the
Johnsons built in Washington Park, an adjacent lot,and a 1920s
bungalow in nearby Mozley Park that had
long been in Mrs. Johnson’s family. The
Trust will oversee the full rehabilitation
of these houses and sell them back to the
community at an affordable price. These
properties are the perfect start for the
initiative for several reasons – the houses
are both contributing properties in
National Register historic districts, they
have been unoccupied so no residents
will be displaced, and their original
architectural character remains intact.
Most importantly, once completed, these
houses will be owner occupied, adding
to those people investing not only in
property but in the neighborhoods they
call home.
Trust President & CEO Mark
McDonald said, “The Georgia Trust believes this initiative will
reinforce the cause of historic preservation, neighborhood
revitalization, age, ethnic, and economic diversity and the quality
of life in these neighborhoods. Preservation should be more than
saving historic buildings in a city. It should also be about the
preservation of human resources.” The fabric of the community,
represented in the history of the Johnson family, can be rebuilt by
a new generation, when they respect and understand the history
of the places they call home.
The Johnson Family House, as seen from the Westside Beltline.
Courtesy of the Georgia Trust
Volunteers on Harwell Street. Courtesy of Georgia Trust
7
Jeanes Supervisors: Unsung Master Teachers That Changed Education
conjunction with other philanthropic
efforts like the Rosenwald School
Building Fund were to have an enduring
impact on public education in the South
by employing the most experienced,
dedicated and insightful Black teachers
from segregated Negro schools and
training for them to become “Master
Teachers.” 8

The Jeanes provided educational
assistance to rural schools in their
respective county through curriculum
development, teacher training, and by
acting as principals and superintendents
when needed. Simultaneously they served
as community advocates and social
workers. Jeanes operated on the mantra,
“the next needed thing,” and historians
have compared them to the modern day
Peace Corps.9
The Jeanes helped design and
implement community projects ranging
from digging wells to provide clean
drinking water to building new schools for
the children to attend. They introduced
scientific techniques to area farmers
which produced larger harvests and more
crops to sell. 10. They also developed
basic health and hygiene programs
instrumental in preventing the spread of
infectious diseases in these extremely poor
communities. They provided rudimentary
sex education and were involved in
housing and sanitation projects.
In Georgia two prominent Jeanes
Supervisors were Narvie Jordan Harris and
Susie Weems Wheeler. Mrs. Harris became
a Jeanes Supervisor in 1944 in DeKalb
County and worked there until 1968. Dr.
Wheeler became a Jeanes Supervisor in
1946 and served several school systems
including Bartow, Cartersville, Calhoun,
and Paulding until 1968. In recognition
of their commitment to the education
of countless children, two schools were
named in their honor: The Narvie J. Harris
Elementary School, located in DeKalb
County, Georgia and the Noble HillWheeler Memorial Center – a restored
Rosenwald School built in 1923- located in
Bartow County.
8 Anderson, 138.
9 Clarke, We Took Straw and Made Bricks: The Jeanes
Supervisors documentary, 1995
10 Clarke, We Took Straw and Made Bricks: The
Jeanes Supervisors documentary, 1995
Mrs. Harris’s distinguished career as
an educator began at Atlanta University
in 1944 as one of the first group of
teachers to study supervision through
a grant provided by the Georgia State
Department of Education. She received
her Master’s Degree in Education. Mrs.
Harris learned of the Jeanes opportunity
from the Southern Education
Foundation.11
After receiving her degree, she was
employed as a Jeanes Supervisor in
DeKalb County. Here, Mrs. Harris would
serve in several positions of leadership
in the education department. Early in
her Jeanes career she served as general
supervisor for grades one through twelve
at the twelve one-teacher schools and
the three combination (elementary and
high) schools within DeKalb County. She
also coordinated and organized various
art, music, and science fairs and festivals,
some of which were adopted statewide.12
After the 1954 Supreme Court
decision to desegregate public education
the Black schools in DeKalb were
closed,13 and Harris transitioned to
the Central office where she developed
programs for the elementary schools.
Soon after, she would become the
director of Head Start for the DeKalb
County. 14
11 Clarke, We Took Straw and Made Bricks: The
Jeanes Supervisors documentary, 1995.
12 Mason Jr., Herman “Skip”, African American
Life in DeKalb County 1823-1970, Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, 1998, 67.
13 Georgia Association of Jeanes Curriculum
Directors 173.
14 Mason, 69.

Dr. Weems Wheeler was selected to
become a Jeanes Supervisor in 1946, a
position that afforded her an opportunity
to impact the lives of thousands of black
children.15 “I was approached to become a
training person for Jeanes supervision at Fort
Valley State,” said Dr Wheeler during a 2007
interview. She attended Atlanta University
for Jeanes Supervisor training after having
worked as a teacher in Bartow County for
nine years. Dr. Wheeler completed her
Jeanes training courses and graduated from
Fort Valley State College in 1945. That year,
she took a position teaching sixth grade at
Summer Hill High School in Cartersville.
When Bartow County became a part of the
Jeanes program, Cartersville was selected
for the northern section of Georgia and
Dr. Wheeler was assigned as the Jeanes
Supervision for county’s African American
schools.16 Dr. Wheeler told the interviewer,
“… I had this position that was sort of like
a black superintendent. And I had to help
get black teachers for the rural schools…
to help try to improve the schools. ”
In 1983, Dr. Wheeler launched the idea
to preserve Noble Hill School and worked
tirelessly with others until the former rural
schoolhouse was once again the center of
black community there.
Vernon F. Clarke, filmmaker and documentarian,
produced the award winning film “The Jeanes
Supervisors: Striving To Educate”. Mr. Clarke
lectures on documentary studies, film history and
TV production and has presented at Clark Atlanta
University, Clayton State University and Tuskegee
University. He is based in Atlanta and can be
reached at vfclarke@gmail.com.
15 Glass-Avery, Hermina, Reflections newsletter. Georgia Historic Preservation Division, April 2007, 4-6.
16 Ibid.
Narvie Jordon Harris c. 1975.
Courtesy Vernon F. Clarke
Susie Weems Wheeler c.1975
Courtesy Vernon F. Clarke
continued from page 1
The Georgia African American Historic Preservation Network (GAAHPN)
was established in January 1989. It is composed of representatives from
neighborhood organizations and preservation groups. GAAHPN was formed in
response to a growing interest in preserving the cultural and built diversity of Georgia’s
African American heritage. This interest has translated into a number of efforts
which emphasize greater recognition of African American culture and contributions
to Georgia’s history. The GAAHPN Steering Committee plans and implements ways
to develop programs that will foster heritage education, neighborhood revitalization,
and support community and economic development.
The Network is an informal group of over 3,000 people who have an interest in
preservation. Members are briefed on the status of current and planned projects and
are encouraged to offer ideas, comments and suggestions. The meetings provide
an opportunity to share and learn from the preservation experience of others and to
receive technical information through workshops. Members receive a newsletter,
Reflections, produced by the Network. Visit the Historic Preservation Division
website at www.georgiashpo.org. Preservation information and previous issues of
Reflections are available online. Membership in the Network is free and open to all.
About GAAHPN
This publication has been financed in part with federal
funds from the National Park Service, Department of
the Interior, through the Historic Preservation Division,
Georgia Department of Natural Resources. The contents
and opinions do not necessarily reflect the views or
policies of the Department of the Interior, nor does
the mention of trade names, commercial products or
consultants constitute endorsement or recommendation by
the Department of the Interior or the Georgia Department
of Natural Resources. The Department of the Interior
prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color,
national origin, or disability in its federally assisted
programs. If you believe you have been discriminated
against in any program, activity, or facility, or if you desire
more information, write to: Office for Equal Opportunity,
National Park Service, 1849 C Street, NW, Washington,
D.C. 20240.
Published quarterly by the
Historic Preservation Division
Georgia Department of Natural Resources
Dr. David Crass, Division Director
Melissa Jest, Editor
Christine Miller-Betts
Jeanne Cyriaque
Dr. Jennifer Dickey
Barbara Golden
Richard Laub
Rev. Lemont Monroe
Kenda Woodard
Isaac Johnson, Chair
Dr. Gerald Golden, Vice-Chair
Board of Directors
Isaac Johnson
Chairman
Melissa Jest
African American
Programs Coordinator
Reflections Editor
Voice 770/389-7870
Fax 770/389-7878
melissa.jest@dnr.ga.gov
HPD Staff
8
Since its first issue appeared in December 2000, Reflections has documented
hundreds of Georgia’s African American historic resources. Now all of these
articles are available on the Historic Preservation Division website
www.georgiashpo.org. Search for links to your topic by categories:
cemeteries, churches, districts, farms, lodges, medical, people, places,
schools, and theatres. You can now subscribe to Reflections from the
homepage. Reflections is a recipient of a Leadership in History Award from
the American Association for State and Local History.
About Reflections