A training school, or county training school, was a type of segregated school for African American students found in the United States and Canada. In the Southern United States they were established to educate African Americans at elementary and secondary levels, especially as teachers; and in the Northern United States they existed as educational reformatory schools. A few training schools still exist, however they exist in a different context.
History
Map showing the divide between northern states and southern states after the American Civil War (blue is north, red is south)
The training school movement began in 1911. The southern training schools were supported by northern philanthropists, roughly from 1910 to 1930.[1][2] The Slater Fund supported many of the schools.[3][4] Philanthropic organizations had their own criteria for funding support.[5]
In the segregated Jim Crow South (roughly until the 1950s), schools for African Americans could not be high schools so they were called training schools and “emphasized vocational training and domestic science over academic subjects”.[6] In the south they often served African American students from a large area and were often named county training schools. County training schools were established in Alabama starting in 1915.[7] Training schools addressed the need for larger and better schools to supplement elementary education in small rural schools and helped meet the demand for teachers. They had an agricultural and industrial training ethos and required support and cooperation from local officials. Many schools were eventually renamed, and became high schools until desegregation when many were closed.
Training schools were also established in northern states and in Canada for as educational reformatory schools.
List of U.S. training schools
Listed by southern or northern status, by state, and in alphabetical order by name
