FRANKLIN, Tenn. (WKRN) — In the early hours of Friday, Georgia Harris was up waiting and reminiscing about a school that shaped her childhood.
“We didn’t have running water,” she said. “We had an outside toilet. We had no playground, but we were a happy group of kids.”
📧 Have breaking come to you: Subscribe to News 2 email alerts →
The Lee Buckner School in the Duplex/Spring Hill community was the place Harris and many other African American children attended school back in the mid-1900s. “The teachers were great,” she said. “They taught us a lot.”
The Lee Buckner School was one of a hundred Rosenwald Schools built in Tennessee between 1917 and 1932.
Rosenwald Schools were public schools built for African American students to attend thanks to a partnership between educator Booker T. Washington and former president of Sears, Roebuck and Company, Julius Rosenwald.
“I’ll tell you I didn’t know what a Rosenwald School was before I started this,” said Bari Beasley.
Beasley is the CEO of the Heritage Foundation of Williamson County.