Mays Lick Negro School is a former black school in May's Lick, Kentucky. The schoolhouse, which dates to the 1920s, has been declared a historic landmark. It was a Rosenwald School. After the American Civil War, the

Freeman's Bureau The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, usually referred to as simply the Freedmen's Bureau, was an agency of early Reconstruction, assisting freedmen in the South. It was established on March 3, 1865, and operated briefly as a ...

was tasked with educating the newly freed black children. The Freeman's Bureau opened a school for black children in the May's Lick community ca. 1868. The location was behind the Second Baptist Church, near US 68 and Nicholas Street. A new schoolhouse was dedicated July 17, 1921. This school was constructed with help of the Rosenwald Fund. The school remained in operation until the early 1960s. The square brick building with long windows has been added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2018. As of 2019, fund-raising efforts are being made to restore this building. Its National Register nomination states baldly:

Mays Lick Negro School operated as a consolidated school for African Americans in Mason County Kentucky from the year it was built, 1920-1921, until Mason County ceased to segregate education racially, in 1960. It is significant all the years from 1920-1960 in the history of local education for showing the interest of the county's white citizens in keeping children in school from interacting racially. Includes historic photos and photos from 2017.

The spelling of the school's name includes no apostrophe, as the school was termed, and literally labelled, "Mays Lick" not "May's Lick".

References

Historically segregated African-American schools in Kentucky Schools supported by the Freedmen's Bureau Rosenwald schools in Kentucky National Register of Historic Places in Mason County, Kentucky Schools in Mason County, Kentucky Educational institutions established in 1868 School buildings completed in 1921 1868 establishments in Kentucky 1921 establishments in Kentucky School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Kentucky {{Kentucky-stub

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References