Going to School in Pine Grove

Rosenwald Schools were born of a partnership between Dr. Booker T. Washington and Jewish philanthropist Julius Rosenwald. The pair built 5,357 state-of-the-art schools for Black children across the South from 1917 until 1932. About a third of rural Black children in the South were served by the schools.

Although these thousands of schools built by Washington and Rosenwald have been collectively called Rosenwald Schools, those preserving the school in Pine Grove have been calling them Tuskegee-Rosenwald Schools to honor Washington’s input, as well as that of the Black communities who sustained the schools.

“It was Dr. Washington’s vision and his training at Tuskegee that made these buildings throughout the South possible,” says Sonja Branch-Wilson, Branch’s daughter and fellow Pine Grove historian.

Branch’s memories paint a picture of what the Tuskegee-Rosenwald Schools looked like: “It was a two-room school and we only had one teacher,” Branch says. “We didn’t have indoor plumbing or central heat, so we had to bring in the water from the spring and make sure we kept the fire going in the potbelly stove all day.” Branch went on to say that your seating was determined by your grade, and that often there would be “serendipitous learning, because once you completed your assignment you were busy listening to the older children. So we were doing peer teaching before peer teaching became a buzzword in education.”

Preserving Pine Grove Elementary

Following the Brown v. Board decision in 1954, most of the Rosenwald Schools closed as states—some of whom were forced to comply—integrated their formerly white-only schools, eliminating the need for schools solely for Black students. Some Rosenwald Schools were repurposed for other uses, such as community centers, but the majority were demolished or fell into disrepair. Out of the more than 5,000 schools, it’s estimated that only 10 percent remain.

“Tuskegee-Rosenwald schools represent the dreams and aspirations of entire African American communities. Pine Grove Elementary continues to act as a symbol of hope and its community’s demand for a better future,” says Lawana Holland-Moore, director of fellowships and interpretive strategies of the National Trust’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund.

Even though it was no longer being used as a school, Pine Grove Elementary remained very important to the community. Once the building was decommissioned as a school in 1964, it was used as a community center, including for voter registration and NAACP work, and has been saved twice by alumni of previous generations who wanted to keep the school as a gathering place.

Branch and Branch-Wilson are part of a group of Pine Grove alumni, descendants, and community members who want to preserve the school as a community center and expand it to include a museum that documents the significance of this place. Called the AMMD Pine Grove Project (named for Agee-Miller-Mayo-Dungy, the families who first began the work to preserve the school), the activists have worked tirelessly to save the school.

Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., a scientist, activist, and former executive director of the NAACP, helped coin the term “environmental racism” to explain the propensity of intentionally placing environmental hazards in communities of color. Citing a study from the NAACP and the Clean Air Task Force, Chavis states in a piece for the Washington Post that Black communities are 75 percent more likely to be near hazardous waste facilities like the one proposed in Pine Grove, which does immeasurable damage to public health and the environment. For the communities near Pine Grove, the move by Green Ridge feels a part of this legacy.

The dedicated activists of the AMMD Pine Grove Project, which include alumni of the school and new generations whom they’ve inspired to take up the mantle, are fighting back. The activists have been vocal in the Army Corps of Engineers’ open comment periods and have helped ensure everyone’s voice is heard.

These efforts are working. The increased attention following Pine Grove’s listing on the National Trust’s 11 Most list has led to media coverage on the local, state, and national level, the activists receiving multiple grants, the erecting of a historic marker sign, multiple community-wide events, partnerships with the University of Virginia and Cumberland County Public Schools, and more. Perhaps more than ever, environmental racism is in the national limelight and those with lived experience—either firsthand or by hearing the stories of relatives, like Branch and Branch-Wilson—are leading the discussion.

A Future Museum at Pine Grove Elementary

While advocating to protect Pine Grove Elementary from the potential negative impacts of the proposed landfill, the activists have been simultaneously applying for grants to help fund the dream of turning the school into a museum, which extends beyond the building. “There are about 25 surviving alumni left and we need to hear their voices,” Branch-Wilson says.

Thanks to a $25,000 grant from the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, they were able to make repairs to site utilities, including water and electricity. The group is also looking to conduct an archeological study since 21 graves have been found on the property.

“We think it may be the enslaved community or people who died from the flu epidemic of 1918,” said Branch. “I don’t know where my great-grandparents are buried. They were enslaved by the people who owned that property, so it is very possible that they’re back there.”