| Mays Lick Negro School | |
| Location: | 5003 Raymond Rd. Mays Lick, Kentucky |
| Coordinates: | 38.5182°N -83.8385°W |
| Built: | 1921 |
| Area: | 2acres |
| Added: | 2018-03-05 |
| Refnum: | 100002160[1] |
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 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.[2]
The square brick building with long windows has been added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2018.[3] As of 2019, fund-raising efforts are being made to restore this building.[4]
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.[5]
The spelling of the school's name includes no apostrophe, as the school was termed, and literally labelled, "Mays Lick" not "May's Lick".[5]