Lewis High School (Macon, Georgia) Explained

Lewis High School was a school serving African American students in Macon, Georgia. Organized and funded by the American Missionary Association,^[1] it was named for General John R. Lewis, the leader of the Freedmen's Bureau in Georgia.

William Sanders Scarborough attended the school and returned to teach at it. He also met his wife at the school, she was a teacher.^[2]

The school was destroyed by arsonists in 1876.^[3] It was rebuilt. It was training teachers by 1884.^[4] It became Lewis Normal Institute in 1885 and Ballard Normal School in 1888 for donor Stephen A. Ballard.^[5] His support helped fund a new building constructed for it in 1889 as well as a dormitory for girls funded by his sister.^[6]

The school was relocated to a new alnost 5-acre campus in 1916 after the city purchased the existing site for the expansion of a hospital.^{[3] [6]} By 1923 it was accredited by the Georgia Department of Education. It became a public high school in 1942. In 1949 the school district discontinued use of the school building and it was sold for use as a community center in 1950.^[3]

Principals

• Christine Gilbert (1880-1882)
• W. A. Hodge
• Livia A. Shae (1887)
• Julia B. Ford (1893)
• Francis T. Waters (1894)
• George C. Burrage (1895)
• Frank B. Stevens (1909).
• Raymond G. Von Tobel (1911 - 1935, when he died in a car crash)
• Lewis Mounts (acting principal)
• James A. Colston (1938 - 1943, he left.to become president of Bethune-Cookman College), the school's first African American principal
• Riago Martin (1944)^[3]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Annual Report of the Public Schools of the City of Macon and Bibb County, Georgia: Year Ending .... Macon (Ga) Board of. Education. May 30, 1898. order of the Board.. Google Books.
2. Book: Scarborough, William Sanders. The Autobiography of William Sanders Scarborough: An American Journey from Slavery to Scholarship. May 30, 2005. Wayne State University Press. 0814332242. Google Books.
3. Web site: Ballard Normal School (Macon, Ga.) | Amistad Research Center. amistadresearchcenter.tulane.edu.
4. Web site: Annual Reports of the Department of the Interior .... United States Department of the. Interior. May 30, 1884. U.S. Government Printing Office. Google Books.
5. Book: Prater, Vickie Leach. Macon in Vintage Postcards. May 30, 1999. Arcadia Publishing. 9780738502007. Google Books.
6. Web site: The American Missionary. May 30, 1917. American Missionary Association.. Google Books.