Desha County Training School

The Desha County Training School was constructed in McGehee (Desha County) in 1927 for the education of African American students. Funded in part by the Julius Rosenwald Fund and the John H. Slater Fund, and rebuilt after a 1937 fire with assistance from the Public Works Administration (PWA), the school was an important center for Black education in southeastern Arkansas up to 1970, when the local school district finally desegregated.

The first school for African Americans in McGehee was the McGehee Colored School, which opened around 1907 in the Evening Star Missionary Baptist Church on South First Street with about twenty-five students. Reuben C. Weddington, minister of the St. Peter African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church and a member of the Arkansas House of Representatives for Desha County around 1891, was principal of the school. Around 1910, a five-room structure was erected on Pear Street across from Evening Star to accommodate an increasing enrollment.

A new school, the Desha County Training School for Colored, was built in the south end of McGehee in 1927. The one-story building was made of brick veneer and consisted of six classrooms, an auditorium that held 350, and the principal’s office. Six teachers were employed.

The total cost of the building was $18,400, with $1,400 provided by the Julius Rosenwald Fund, $13,500 from public funds, and $3,500 provided by local Black citizens. The Rosenwald Fund was created in 1917 and provided funding for Black students in rural areas of the South. The school also received funds from the John H. Slater Fund and the General Board of Education. The John H. Slater Fund was created in 1882 to assist in the education of African Americans in the southern United States and was responsible for establishing or creating the concept of the “county training school.” It was the first educational foundation in the United States whose entire focus was the education of Black students. John D. Rockefeller founded the General Board of Education in 1902, and it was incorporated in 1903 with a focus on improving education throughout the United States with an emphasis on helping rural white and Black schools in the South.

The 1927 school building burned in 1937. After the fire, students attended classes at various Black churches in McGehee. A new school was built in 1938 with assistance from the Public Works Administration (PWA), an agency created under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal program that, among other things, was instrumental in building public structures such as schools. The new school cost about $17,800, had six furnished classrooms, and had an auditorium that seated 250. In 1948, the school burned again and was replaced in 1949 with a new modern school.

A gymnasium with a seating capacity of about 350 opened in 1953. In 1955, a new high school building with ten classrooms, a combination cafeteria and auditorium, and school offices was constructed to house the upper six grades. The campus also had a shop building for vocational classes and later a modular building addition for some of the elementary grades. After school desegregation in 1970, the McGehee School District used the 1955 building for the McGehee Junior High School until it burned in 1981.

The 1949 building is the only structure left of the Desha County Training School campus in the twenty-first century. The C. B. King School, an agency that provides services to persons with developmental delays or disabilities, began operating in that building around 1981–1982. There have been only a few modifications to the building.

Two notable accomplishments about the Desha County Training School were mentioned in news articles. An article printed by the McGehee Times (“School Building Will Be Replaced,” February 4, 1937) mentioned that during the 1930s, Desha won first place in an improvement contest held among Black schools and “was regarded by state school authorities as the best kept Negro public school in the state.” An article in the Arkansas Gazette (“Fire Destroys Desha Negro High School,” December 22, 1948) mentioned that Desha was the only accredited Black high school in Desha County during the late 1930s.

For additional information:
“Colored School Gets Donation.” McGehee Times, December 6, 1927, p. 1.

“Fire Destroys Desha Negro High School.” Arkansas Gazette, December 22, 1948, p. 3.

Fisk University Rosenwald Fund Card File Database. https://fisk.libguides.com/c.php?g=1057119&p=7710823 (accessed October 17, 2025).

“From Whence We Came: History of the Desha County Training School, 1907–1970.” Desha High School Reunion, 2000 Booklet. On file at the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, Central Arkansas Library System, Little Rock, Arkansas.

Iacobelli, Teresa, and Barbara Shubinski. “‘Without Distinction of Race, Sex, or Creed’: The General Education Board, 1903–1964.” Rockefeller Archive Center. https://resource.rockarch.org/story/the-general-education-board-1903-1964/ (accessed October 17, 2025).

“Negroes Occupy New School Building.” McGehee Times, June 10, 1938, p. 1.

“New Negro School Gym-Auditorium to Be Ready for Commencement.” McGehee Times, May 2, 1953, p. 1.

“Plans for New Colored School Building Here Approved; Will Open Bids Wed.” McGehee Times, August 10, 1955, 1.

Proceedings and Reports for Year Ending September 28, 1928. John F. Slater Fund. Online at https://ia803104.us.archive.org/25/items/proceedingsrepor00john_7/proceedingsrepor00john_7.pdf (accessed October 17, 2025).

Redcay, Edward E. County Training Schools and Public Secondary Education for Negroes in the South. Washington DC: John H. Slater Fund, 1935. https://ufdcimages.uflib.ufl.edu/UF/00/09/85/31/00001/countytrainingsc00redcrich.pdf (accessed October 17, 2025).

Rice, Maylon. “McGehee School Destroyed; Arson Suspected.” Arkansas Gazette, September 26, 1981, p. 5A.

“School Building Will Be Replaced.” McGehee Times, February 4, 1937, p. 1.

“Work Starts on Negro School Bldg.” McGehee Semi-Weekly Times, August 16, 1927, p. 1.