Scattered around the property are signs telling about the history of the Academy:
We want a school, we need a Teacher 1870-1872
In November 1870, William A. Golding, an African American member of the Georgia Legislature, wrote the American Missionary Association (AMA) on behalf of the people of Liberty County requesting a teacher. "They want a teacher," he wrote, "preferably one southern born, but would accept any available instructor." In 1871, the AMA responded to the requests of the community. Eliza Ann Ward, a staunch abolitionist from Massachusetts who previously taught in both Savannah, Georgia and Hilton Head, South Carolina, was sent to open a school in Golding's Grove. The school and church were locally called "Golding's Grove" because William A. Golding donated the buildings and the surrounding land. She established the Homestead School and it opened in January 1871. The school accepted students at all levels. Ward was astonished at the rapid progress of the students and their desire to learn. Eleven students read well enough to be assigned to the Second Reader and Ward discovered others who were even more advanced. In August 1872, Eliza Ann Ward left Liberty County due to poor health. She continued to correspond with the people of Golding's Grove and collect clothing for them. Liberty County residents considered Ward to be not only an excellent teacher but an honorable woman as well. They requested her return because the school ceased to function in her absence.
The central academic building at Dorchester Academy was called Christian Endeavor Hall. It was given this name because it was constructed with contributions from the Young People's Societies of Christian Endeavor, a group associated with the American Missionary Alliance.
The Growth of the Dorchester Academy 1874-1930s
In 1872, African Americans from Liberty County began another letter writing campaign; this time for a teacher to replace Eliza Ann Ward. They requested that their next teacher be both a teacher and a minister. In the spring of 1874, the community finally received news that the American Missionary Association (AMA) had hired Floyd Snelson as their new teacher and minister for the Midway Congregational Church. By the end of the 1874 school term, two hundred and seventy pupils had attended. The school had grown to be so large that nearly sixty students were instructed outside the classroom. In September of 1877, Snelson was sent to Africa as a missionary by the AMA. When he returned, he resumed his position as minister but not as principal because the AMA had decided that the job now required a full-time employee.
In 1878, the old one-room schoolhouse was rebuilt as a two-room school. It opened as Dorchester Academy in 1879. Expansion rapidly continued and by 1896, the thirty-acre campus included the school building, teacher's home, girls' and boys' dormitories, dining hall, kitchen, laundry and industrial buildings. In 1896, Sarah Morrison and Frank C. Daniels were the first graduates of Dorchester Academy. They were also the first high school graduates in all of Liberty County.
Elizabeth Moore at Dorchester Academy 1925-1932
In 1925, Elizabeth B. Moore began her six-year tenure as Dorchester Academy's only female, African American principal. She insisted that both parents and community accept responsibility for supporting the school. She believed that charity and tuition breaks should be given only when absolutely necessary. Due to Moore's efforts, many parents began to recognize the importance of paying tuition and how it would benefit their children. Principal Moore expanded the school's curiculum to include art appreciation lessons and during her administration the music department greatly improved. She encouraged the children to take pride in their accomplishments by increasing the number of student presentations given to the public. In 1927, Moore added fifteen minutes of physical education to the children's daily routine. With the addition of a science department in 1930, Dorchester Academy achieved acrreditation. The growing success of the students under Moore's administration was so great that neighboring schools and colleges began to visit Dorchester Academy to recruit students for further education. Moore created the Dorchester Academy Alumni Association and revitalized the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA). Principal Elizabeth B. Moore unfortunately died suddenly and unexpectedly in 1932. She touched the lives of many students and helped them set high goals for their futures.
Athletics Programs at Dorchester Academy 1926-1940
Founding the athletic programs was considered on of Principal Elizabeth Moore's greatest achievements. School teams came to be known as the Dorchester Academy Tigers and Tigerettes, with "Shag" the tiger as their mascot. Dorchester Academy participated in its first athletic event in 1926, a Savannah public school track meet. Basketball teams were organized that same year. The academy began to develop a football team in 1927 and a baseball team soon after. Boys' and girls' basketball teams both dominated the Southeast Georgia High School Athletic Conference during the 1932-1933 inaugural season. By 1935, both teams had won their third consecutive annual titles. In 1935 and 1936, the boys' team won the state basketball championship and was invited to play in the annual Southern intercollegiate Basketball Tournament at the Tuskegee Institute. The girls' team was also invited to play in this tournament in 1936. Tennis was introduced in 1931 and a tennis club was founded in 1933. The tennis program was so successful that Dorchester Academy became a charter member of the Georgia State Tennis Association (GSTA) abnd by 1936 Dorchester Academy students were competing in international tennis tournaments. The school's tennis program was honored in 1938 when several nationally ranked tennis professionals played an exhibition match on campus. Most of the other stops were at colleges. The athletic programs at Dorchester Academy gave the students a feeling of pride in themselves and in what they could accomplish.
New Life for Dorchester Academy 1932-1940
J. Roosevelt Jenkins, who was Dorchester Academy's assistant principal, science teacher and athletic director, replaced Elizabeth Moore as principal after her death in 1932. He continued to strengthen the school's curriculum and the thriving athletic programs. During his administration, Dorchester Academy was in its academic prime. In 1934 the entire graduating class was admitted to college. Jenkins made sure the school kept its Georgia accreditation. In doing so, Dorchester Academy earned the coveted "A rating" from the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. In 1934, the school was classified as a Group I Georgia accredited high school. This meant it was one of "the best schools in teaching staff, equipment or laboratory, library and buildings, and with three fourths of the academic teachers holding degrees." The boys' dormitory, which burned down in 1932, was rebuilt and formally dedicated as the Elizabeth B. Moore Hall.
During this time, public school opportunities were growing for African Americans in Liberty County.The Board of Education had, until then, neglected to adequately fund African American education. With the creation and growth of the Liberty County Training School (LCTS) in the 1930s, accredited, public, adequately funded, county administered African American high school education was now available. Because of this the American Missionary Association (AMA) closed Dorchester Academy in the spring of 1940 because they did not want to duplicate the work of the local public schools. All of the 1940 twelfth grade students voted to receive their diplomas from Dorchester Academy and the remaining students were distributed among the other African American public schools in the county.
Most of Dorchester Academy's old buildings were torn down by the AMA in 1945 because of their poor condition. They decided it would be cost effective to remodel the new brick boys dormitory. The AMA contributed $10 for every $1 raised in Liberty County up to $20,000. Locals organized the Dorchester Cooperative Building Fund Drive and raised $2,000 to save Elizabeth Moore Hall.
Working Together at the Dorchester Cooperative Center 1930s-1940s
The Industrial Arts Department at Dorchester Academy taught students practical skills they could use in everyday life. The boys took classes in farming, woodworking, iron-working, and architecture. The girls were instructed in cooking, sewing, dressmaking, and related industries. Most importantly, the students were taught teamwork and the basics of cooperative buying. The Dorchester Cooperative Center's efforts to encourage cooperative buying succeeded because the former students of Dorchester Academy understood and encouraged the community action.
Established in 1937, the Dorchester Cooperative Center opened several cooperative groups including a cooperative store, consumer's cooperative, chicken cooperative, and producer's cooperative. In March 1939, the Dorchester Federal Credit Union (DFCU) opened. All who lived within nine miles of Dorchester Academy were eligible to join. The DFCU's goals were to "stimulate systematic saving," help those unable to secure needed funds, and to bring the community together in a way that encouraged group action. The credit union's success "made it easier for Negroes to get credit from the local bank." Thanks to the DFCU, two farming cooperative groups within the DCC were able to organize and secure loans to purchse farming tractors.
In the late 1940's members of the Dorchester Cooperative Center wanted to provide local healthcare for themselves and other residents. Thanks to their efforts the remodeled boys' dormitory became the home of a clinic run by the Liberty County Hospital Authority for Colored People.
Civil Liberties at Dorchester Cooperative Center 1940-present
In an effort to involve Liberty County African Americans in politics, the Dorchester Cooperative Center (DCC) began to help register and organize African American voters. The DCC taught local African Americans the United States and Georgia constitutions, followed the activities of state and national representatives, charted how legislators voted on issues, interviewed candidates for office, and discussed issues and community goals. They also instructed citizens on how to mark ballots and general behavior at the polls. In 1953, the DCC formed a branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 1961, they gained national attention when the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), in cooperation with the American Missionary Association (AMA), established "Leadership Training Programs and Citizenship Schools" at Dorchester Academy to train grass roots leaders from throughout the South. These leaders would go back to their communities to organize and train others. Some of the influential SCLC leaders who frequented the DCC were SCLC Educational Director Dorothy Cotton, supervisor of teacher training Septima Clark, and Citizenship Program Administrator Andrew Young. Notable civil rights leaders who attended DCC programs included Ralph Abernathy, Wyatt Walker, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. King's biographer David L. Lewis contends that King planned his 1963 Birmingham campaign while staying at Dorchester Academy in Elizabeth B. Moore Hall. Although DCC membership has steadily declined, the organization now known as the Dorchester Improvement Association (DIA), still exists and continues to educate and support African Americans in Liberty County.
The Power of Cooperation
The people at the Dorchester Cooperative Center understood that in order to make even the smallest difference everyone had to do their part. When the Farmers Co-op at the center wanted to buy a tractor, twenty families pooled their resources and purchased their own coorperatively owned tractor. The debt on the tractor was completely repaid within the next three years.
Liberty County Citizen's Council 1946-1953
The Errosion of the Franchise
With the passage of the 14th and 15th amendments to the U.S. Constitution in 1868 and 1869, African Americans were granted full citizenship and the right to vote. In less than a decade, nearly 100,000 black men had registered to vote in Georgia. Success, however, was short-lived.
In 1877 Georgia passed a new state constitution which restricted the franchise by adding a residency requirement and altering the state's poll tax law to make it cumulative. To be eligible to vote after 1877, men had had to be a U.S. citizen, at least 21 years of age, and a resident of the state for at least 1 year and of the county for at least 6 months prior to registering. In addition, males between the ages of 21 and 60 had to show proof of having paid their poll tax every year since their 21st birthday (or since 1877 when the law took effect) before they could register.
Black access to the vote continued to erode. Beginning in the mid-1890s, the Democratic Party of Georgia prohibited African American men from voting in state primaries. And when legally sanctioned tactics failed to deter black voters, intimidation and violence often did. The death toll sounded in 1908 when a state constitutional amendment made it possible for county registrars to arbitrarily apply vaguely-defined literacy and citizenship requirements. For all practical purposed black men had been effectively disfranchised.
Liberty County's Citizen Council
In 1945, Georgia's 1877 state constitution was overturned, eliminating the poll tax. Liberty County's Citizen Council immediately went to work registering voters. In April of 1946, Georgia's white-only primary was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in King v. Chapman.
The Liberty County Citizen's Council was formed in 1946.
The Council, held a series of town meetings to discuss strategies for solving legal problems. These were true town meetings; everyone had a voice and as a result they often lasted from early evening to long after midnight. One participant recalled that, "Every detail of the meeting [was] known by whites within 12 hours of the meeting."
The immecdiate goal of the Citizen's Council was to get black citizens registered to vote.