Mary M. Bethune High School
Halifax, Virginia
In 1872 the Banister Baptist Association built a private African-American training school in Halifax County. Originally the campus consisted of four wooden buildings and a dormitory. The school year was six months, and the grades went only as far as the ninth. Because of transportation difficulties in a county as large as Halifax, the school was primarily a boarding school. Board was $200 a year, which was prohibitive for most blacks at the time. In 1920 the school was rebuilt as the Halifax Training School to house African-America high school students. Later it was upgraded and renamed the Mary Bethune School. By 1950 it was the state's largest rural black high school. While there was no running water in labs, little money for equipment and supplies, and no transportation, a national magazine reported that 27 of the 64 seniors went on to college, far above the national average of 20 percent at that time.
In 1956, in order to meet "separate but equal" standards and stave off integration in the face of court decisions, the county erected the present building, officially named the Mary M. Bethune High School of Halifax County. Despite the county's efforts, the school was the hub of the local integration movement in 1969. After integration in 1970, Mary M. Bethune became a junior high school. All county high school students - black and white- attended Halifax Senior High School. The original Mary M. Bethune High School building has subsequently been renovated. It still provides services for the community under the new guise of the Mary M. Bethune Government Office Complex, School System and Child Care Center.
Marker can be reached from Cowford Road (Virginia Route 651) near Mary Bethune Street.
Courtesy hmdb.org
