The Lowndesboro School, one of the oldest schools for African American children built during Reconstruction that still stands, will be recognized by the Alabama Historical Association with a new historical marker at an unveiling ceremony on April 20. The marker is part of the Association’s History Revealed program to assist local communities in placing historical markers that document underrepresented aspects of Alabama history. The Lowndesboro School was founded in 1867 by Dr. Mansfield Tyler and Daniel Alexander, formerly enslaved men who built a building that year to serve as both a church and a school for the Black people of Lowndesboro. The marker unveiling ceremony is being organized by Josephine Bolling McCall, president of The Elmore Bolling Initiative, assisted by Lowndesboro School Alumni Linda G. Bibb and Kenneth Gregory who are serving as co-chairs.
“My family’s connection to the Lowndesboro School spans generations. My great-grandparents were among its first students during Reconstruction. Four of my siblings and I attended the school on the day my father was lynched in Lowndesboro in 1947,” said Mrs. McCall.
“We are grateful to the Alabama Historical Association for recognizing the unique value of this school building in Alabama,” she continued. “It stands for thousands of schools built by formerly enslaved people throughout the South that were allowed to deteriorate due to lack of adequate funding from public school districts or destroyed during waves of white supremacy violence.”