Carver-Price continues to preserve site’s legacy

On Aug. 16, 2012, the Carver-Price Legacy Museum Board approved a document establishing a mission “to explore and preserve the legacy of Carver High/Carver-Price High School.” Nearly 10 years later, the mission continues with the restoration and preservation of the building that housed the school and ambitious plans for displays of memorabilia portraying the history of the “experiences and progression of Black America from slavery to equality.”

An early leader in that endeavor was Mrs. Mozella Jordan Price, the wife of the Rev. P.W. Price. Mrs. Price was hired in the fall of 1918, by the then Superintendent of the Appomattox County School Division, N. Ragland Featherston, to be the Supervisor of Colored Schools. She was described by him as having “energy, high ideals, and devotion to duty, and being modest, conservative, and well-schooled in business affairs.

Mrs. Price changed the school term from five months to nine months. Under her leadership, the six one-room schools expanded to five one-room, two two-room schools throughout the county, and one 12-room school in the Town of Appomattox. The annual salary for teachers went from $125 to $978.45.

In those days, not only the schools themselves were segregated, but also the county taxation system. The magisterial districts and incorporated towns were divided between “White” and “Colored” properties and the taxes collected were allotted to the schools in those proportions. This made it difficult to finance the Black schools, but Mrs. Price overcame that inequality by raising funds through private subscription to make the school in Appomattox possible. As a result, the Carver High School was eventually renamed Carver-Price High School in her honor.

The Appomattox County Public Schools were integrated in February of 1970. The process was a peaceful transition and resulted in the eventual consolidation of the community schools to the ones located in the Town of Appomattox. Carver-Price High School transitioned to Appomattox Intermediate School and then became Appomattox Elementary School.

When a new Appomattox Elementary School was built, the old Carver-Price building served as the venue for court hearings while the new courthouse was being built. Eventually that space has become the meeting room for the Appomattox County Board of Supervisors and another area as the Appomattox satellite for Central Virginia Community College.

Most recently, the original building has been leased by the Carver-Price Legacy Museum, and giant steps forward have been made in securing and preserving artifacts and furnishings and preparing the building to display them.

More information is available at the website: www.Carver-Price.com.

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