Edwin Washington Project

Sample Material

1926 (Probably) Memo on the task of the school system, attached to paper by Ben Ward called “Forced Education.”  The memo advances the notion of using education to foster a critical mind, whereas the paper is an attack on the high school system as forcing students into college education when they might be better suited for industrial work.  For whites, this likely meant agricultural training and certainly would have been the direction for African-Americans.  See discussion in 5.4   Vocational Courses and Schools.

1940/41.   Leesburg HS set up their curriculum to meet the needs of college bound pupils and those who would not enter college[1].  African Americans didn’t benefit from such studies, in part because they didn’t have an accredited High School until 1941, though unaccredited high school training did take place at the training center building on Union street by Union Cemetery.  That program was sometiems called Leesburg High School.