MARS HILL – The town of Mars Hill is getting national recognition thanks to its historic Mars Hill Anderson Rosenwald School, which hosted the Mars Hill Town Board for its February meeting.
The public records show that Madison County operated free public schools for Black students beginning in 1874. By 1905, Black schools were operated throughout Madison County in Marshall, Hot Springs, Little Pine, Mars Hill, Bull Creek, and Ivy. After the Mars Hill Anderson Rosenwald School was established in 1928, Black students throughout the county attended the school at Long Ridge until the schools were integrated in 1964.
The only school of its kind still standing in Western North Carolina, the one-classroom building on Mount Olive Drive was constructed in 1929. Rosenwald schools, named for a wealthy retail executive who backed the effort, were built in the early 20th century to serve Black students across the country when segregation era laws prevented them from attending public schools then reserved for white students only.