Located in front of Georgia Washington Middle School in the Mount Meigs Community in Montgomery County, Alabama, this marker briefly tells the story of how Georgia Washington worked to create a build a school for the children of the area. The marker is on Antioch Lane at the corner of Georgia Washington Road, on the edge of the school grounds. It tells her story from her birth in 1851 to her death in 1952, along with her burial on school grounds.
Since it is such an interesting story, the following is copied from the Georgia Washington Junior High School Web site, accessed on July 5, 2012. source: (
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"Georgia Washington arrived in the village of Mt Meigs in 1893 to recognize her own dream and establish a school. She found that no place had been provided for herself or the school. The pastor of the church gave her lodging for the first month. By October 1893, she had rented a cabin, 12'x13', and opened the public village school at Mt. Meigs with an enrollment of four small boys. Shortly afterward enrollment had increased so much that they moved into the Antioch Baptist Church.
During her first year at Mt. Meigs, Miss Washington lived alone in a cabin she had rented for herself about a quarter of a mile from the school. By February the people had bought and paid for two acres of land and built a small school house, 18'by 36'. The enrollment that first year was one hundred. After that first year, however, the school grew rapidly. Outside aid came, new buildings were added and two Hampton teachers joined Miss Washington.
Georgia Washington's dream of planting a school in the wilderness was being realized. By 1916 the Peoples Village School had grown from an enrollment of four small boys and one teacher to an enrollment of 225 students and five teachers. From having no place at all, now there was a two-story school house with three recitation rooms, an assembly hall, and rooms for teaching industries to both boys and girls. There was also a teachers house, a dormitory, and a kitchen; the school owned 27 acres of land. The land was cultivated and provided a means of teaching the boys and girls how to farm and live a farm life. It also supplied food for the students and teachers. Graduates were encouraged to seek higher learning, and many did, attending such school as Hampton Institutes, Tuskegee Institute , Meharry Medical College, and others. Others went back home to apply knowledge gained at people's village School in living clean useful lives
Changes were occurring in the Mt. Meigs community during this time. In 1932, Miss Washington wrote in a letter to school supporters that over one hundred families owned their homes and small tracts of land in and about Mt. Meigs and that all the land touching the school ground was owned by African Americans." They like to live near the school". The life of Mt Meigs was centered around the church and the school. The people's Village school and campus was described as a "stately", the buildings were all painted a warm brown and were trimmed in beige. All students were required to assume some work responsibility at the school in addition to classroom activities. The results could be seen in the clean, neat, well kept appearance of the school and its grounds. The school is credited with having the first electric lights in Mt Meigs and, at one time, the big school bell served as a clock for the community.
In 1936, after 43 years of dedicated service, Ms. Georgia Washington retired .Mr. Oscar Pinkston, a former student at Peoples Village School , succeeded her as principal. Miss Washington spent her retirement living in her same residence quarters at the Peoples Village School. She saw change and progress continue and she continued to work among the people of Mt Meigs until her death in 1952. She was buried where she lived and worked on the school campus. At the time of her death, the school that stands on the site of the Peoples Village School was renamed Georgia Washington High School in her honor.
In 1974, the school system converted the Georgia Washington School into a junior high. Currently, GW serves most of eastern Montgomery County. 99% of the student body is transported, by bus. The present-day building was completed in 1950 and a new wing was added in 2004. Today, GW has a student enrollment of 500."