The Mount Meigs Colored Institute (also Montgomery County Training School) was a reform school founded by

Cornelia Bowen Cornelia Bowen (1865-1934) was an African American teacher and school founder from Alabama. She was in the first graduating class of the Tuskegee Institute and went on to found the Mount Meigs Colored Institute as well as the Mt. Meigs Negro Bo ...

for African-Americans in

Mount Meigs, Alabama Mount Meigs (also Evansville or Mount Pleasant) is an unincorporated community in Montgomery County in the state of Alabama. The Mount Meigs Campus, a juvenile correctional facility and the headquarters of the Alabama Department of Youth Servic ...

, an unincorporated community in

Montgomery County, Alabama Montgomery County is located in the State of Alabama. As of the 2020 census, its population was 228,954, making it the fifth-most populous county in Alabama. Its county seat is Montgomery, the state capital. Montgomery County is included in th ...

. The school was founded in 1888 as a single-room school; four years later, its students moved into a two-story facility built for the purpose. The work of constructing the new building was done by male students. The school's models were

Tuskegee Institute Tuskegee University (Tuskegee or TU), formerly known as the Tuskegee Institute, is a private, historically black land-grant university in Tuskegee, Alabama. It was founded on Independence Day in 1881 by the state legislature. The campus was de ...

and

Hampton Institute Hampton University is a private, historically black, research university in Hampton, Virginia. Founded in 1868 as Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School, it was established by Black and White leaders of the American Missionary Association af ...

, and it advocated vocational schooling, teaching such skills as farming, carpentry, blacksmithing—the hope was that the school would be able to provide its own food and that students would contribute to white and black communities. Besides the normal classes of instruction, the school taught farming, blacksmithing, and wheelwriting to boys, and sewing and cooking to girls. Students at the school also farmed the nine acres of land that were under cultivation and grew crops included cotton, sugar cane, corn, peas, and potatoes. All of which, besides cotton which was sold, were used by the school. The board that ran the school consisted of twelve people: six whites, all from out of state, and six blacks, all local, including

Booker T. Washington Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to several presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American c ...

. For all practical purposes the school in its day-to-day operation was run by African-Americans. It proved harder than expected to make the school as financially independent as was envisioned; support came through the efforts of Bowen, who proved a tireless fundraiser and got the Alabama Federation of Colored Women's Clubs to support the school. With their help additional acreage was acquired; the clubs were particularly appalled by the numbers of black young men in the area who ended up incarcerated in adult prisons, and supporting the school allowed young boys to stay out of prison—one such student was

Satchel Paige Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige (July 7, 1906 – June 8, 1982) was an American professional baseball pitcher who played in Negro league baseball and Major League Baseball (MLB). His career spanned five decades and culminated with his induction in ...

. By 1908 a second institution was opened, the later state-run

Mount Meigs Campus The Mount Meigs Campus is a juvenile corrections facility of the Alabama Department of Youth Services located in the Mount Meigs community, and in the city of Montgomery, Alabama; the campus serves as the agency's administrative headquarters.

. The school was destroyed by a fire in 1948; at that time, it was known as the Montgomery County Training School. After the fire, the Montgomery County Board of Education decided to consolidate the school with the People's Village School, which was founded by Georgia Washington. The new school was rebuilt on the site of the People's Village School and named Georgia Washington High School. In 1974, the school was converted to a junior high school and renamed Georgia Washington Middle School. In 2018, the town

Pike Road Pike Road is a town in Montgomery County, Alabama, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 9,439, up from 5,406 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Montgomery metropolitan area. Pike Road was founded in 1815. Pike Road was in ...

paid $9.85 million for the school campus, agreeing to the terms that Georgia Washington’s name would stay on the school and also that her grave, which is on the school’s property, be maintained. The school is now the

Pike Road High School Pike Road High School is a public school in Pike Road, Alabama, a part of Pike Road Schools. The school site was home to the People's Village School, later renamed Georgia Washington Middle School, until it was acquired by the school system of ...

References

{{Coord, 32, 22, 43, N, 86, 5, 5, W, display=title Buildings and structures in Montgomery County, Alabama Educational institutions established in 1888 1888 establishments in Alabama