The walls of a dismantled black schoolhouse reveal its history
By Anne Radford
St. Louis County Parks is in the process of moving and reconstructing a significant building to the Historic Village at Faust Park. This year marks the 129th anniversary of Missouri’s oldest-surviving, one-room schoolhouse. African Schoolhouse No. 4 was built for the education of African American children in West St. Louis County. After years of not having a school for black children, area residents successfully sued in 1893 to have community-supported education for those children in the Chesterfield area. Prior to that, the district had refused to abide by legislation requiring schools to be created for black children based on the area’s population. According to the laws at that time, a minimum number of 20 school-age children were required to establish a school.
Fighting For An Education
While the original school was being constructed, Chesterfield school directors sent the students to the neighboring Hilltown district, and paid for their schooling for nine months. The total cost of the “Chesterfield African School” was $600. Completed in 1894, the building is a 15-foot by 19-foot, single-room, log structure covered by siding, with chalkboards painted on the interior walls. There was no playground equipment,nor a restroom inside.
Within a few years, the school was fully operational, closing only for the summer break. In 1896, Plessy vs Ferguson gave lawful power to the separate-but-equal doctrine, which kept black and white children separated within schools across the nation. In practice, however, African American schools were rarely equal. Records indicate that white schools were funded at a level three times the amount that black schools received. In addition, black schools were not neighborhood schools in the same sense as white schools. African American children often had to walk long distances to their schools, often passing white neighborhood schools on the way. St. Louis County was no exception, and black students were often given inferior buildings and instructional materials.