SPECIAL TO THE SIGNAL

The Lowndesboro School was built around 1890 and is one of the few remaining nineteenth century schools built for African-American children.

The school’s owners, Lucius and Myrtle Evans will donate the school to The Elmore Bolling Foundation Thursday, August 18, 2011 at the Rufus Lewis Library, Montgomery, Alabama at 5:45 pm.

The two-room school is located in the historic antebellum village of Lowndesboro. Located 200 yards from the historic CME Church which has the dome from the Alabama State Capitol when the Capitol was in Cahaba, the school has been recognized by Alabama Historical Commission’s Executive Director, Frank White, as “a historical gem which must be preserved so that future generations will understand its important historical and educational significance.”

The school is listed as a “place in peril” and on May 19, 2011 the school was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks & Heritage. The school is eligible for listing on the National Register of Landmarks & Heritage.

In August 1868, a contribution was made by the Southern Aid Society through the Freedman’s Bureau to help buy a building that had been built by Daniel Alexander and Mansfield Tyler to serve as a school and a church for “The Colored People of Lowndesboro.”

Dr. Mansfield Tyler was a black reconstruction legislator who represented Lowndes County in the Alabama House of Representatives, 1870-72.

Both Josephine Bolling McCall, Executive Director of The Elmore Bolling Foundation and Lucius Smith’s great-grandparents attended the Lowndesboro School.

Smith and McCall were classmates at the school in the 1947-48 school year.

The Elmore Bolling Foundation is a 501 © 3 organization that was organized in 2008.

Its mission is to preserve the legacy of Elmore Bolling by promoting community-wide interest for the concerns of the disadvantaged and providing services to residents of Lowndes County and under-represented citizens of Alabama.