Colored School
A school for Newark's Black children operated in the city from 1851-1888. Instruction took place at a number of different sites, but the the longest-serving location was a small, brick building at 58 Hoover Street.
The Newark Public School system began in 1848, but there would be no public school for the city's Black children until 1859, when leaders of the Black community approached the Board of Education and successfully petitioned for the creation of a public school for Black children. The first school for Black children in Newark opened on Elm Street in 1851 in a small house, but it operated on a subscription basis for its students, not with public funds. Its first teacher was Sarah Carey. Educated at Oberlin College, Carey taught at the school from 1851-1853. A number of teachers followed as the school shifted locations, first to the corner of Church and Fourth Streets and then to the "colored chapel" on Railroad Street between 1853 and 1859. [1] Lacking money for schoolbooks, the teachers and students used what books were available to them until members of the Black community—William Henry, Simeon Carey, Jackson Shackleford, and John Norman among others—raised funds to provide more consistent learning materials.
This same community effort led in 1859 to the establishment of the first public school for Black children; Shackleford, Henry and Carey petitioned the Newark Board of Education for such a school and the Board supported the effort. Jackson Shackleford leased the Board a piece of property on Hoover Street for the construction of a schoolhouse. The framework for the school was erected, but then promptly torn down in the night by a group of White residents angered at the prospect of a school for Blacks. Undeterred, work continued and the building rose again, but this time an armed Jackson Shackleford guarded it through the night, ensuring the school would be completed. That wooden schoolhouse was only used for two years until a new, brick building replaced it at 58 Hoover Street on property also owned by Shackleford. Daniel Guy, also a graduate of Oberlin College, became teacher at Hoover Street in September 1875 and served as the school's instructor for more than a decade. [2]
From 1861-1888, the schoolhouse at 58 Hoover Street served to educate the city's Black children. It would close in 1888 with the enforcement of the Arnett Act, a state bill that integrated many Ohio schools by demanding equal opportunity for Black students. [3]
J.G.
For more information see:
Jackson, Rita Richardson. African American Trailblazers, Licking County (1808-2008). ATIR Publishing, 2008.
And Licking County Library's educational video on the Hoover Street School.
