April 13, 2009

In 1920, Mississippi native Floyd Brown, shown here (back row far left) with his siblings circa 1910s, opened the Fargo Agricultural School near Brinkley (Monroe County). The school, modeled on Brown’s alma mater: Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, was one of the few educational institutions for African Americans in Arkansas. Brown sold the property to the state in 1949, and it became the Fargo Negro Girls Training School. Brown remained as principal until his retirement in 1954. Today, the school is commemorated by the Fargo Agricultural School Museum in Brinkley.