~ The Former #TBColoredSchool Sits In The Heart Of #BrandywineAutomotive (Located At The Intersection Of Crain Highway & Brandywine Road) ~
TBColoredSchool is significant for its connection to the history of education for African Americans in Southern Prince George’s County. The school was located at 14000 Crain Highway, Brandywine, MD. (Previously known as TB, MD.) Classes were held in the school from 1872 – “the eve of desegregation.” Members of the #Moores, #Brooks, #Simms, #Bolden, #Wilsons, #Wrights, and #Magruder families were just some of the local residents that attended the school.
?THE TOWN OF #TBMaryland – EARLY 1860 – 1900’s
In the early 1900’s, #TB was an unincorporated community in Prince George’s County, in the U.S. state of Maryland, near the intersection of highways MD 5 and US 301.
A post office called T.B. was established in 1860, and remained in operation until 1914.
?THE TOWN OF #BrandywineMaryland – EARLY 1860 – 1900’s
Brandywine was developed on the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad’s Pope Creek (Southern Maryland) line in about 1873 and was the only town on the route that developed into a railroad town. The town was located to the east of #TB and was situated between #TB and #Baden, MD. In 1912, the Bank of Brandywine was chartered from what had previously been the Southern Maryland German-American Bank.
? HISTORY OF #TBColoredSchool
T.B. (AKA Tee Bee) School was constructed in 1926 to replace an earlier school in the area constructed before 1872 by the Freedmen’s Bureau named the TB Colored School. This school house apparently served the African-American community for 50 years, but, by 1924, classes were being held in a “portable building”.
A new school house was constructed in 1926 with the assistance of the #JuliusRosenwald Fund. According to #RosenwaldFund files, the total cost of construction for the one-teacher school was $2,800. Of this amount, the black community contributed $150, public funds amounted to $2,250, and the Rosenwald Fund supplied $400.4 It is interesting to note that in an undated photo in the Rosenwald Archives labeled “Tee Bee school” there are two buildings, with the larger of the two buildings identifiable.
? EDUCATION OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN CHILDREN – PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY
In 1872 Prince George’s County assumed control of the education of African- American children from the Freedmen’s Bureau (Banks 1948; Thornton and Gooden 1997:133). At that time the county officials voted to establish one or more schools in each election district for African-American children. (Thornton and Gooden 1997:133) describe this as a coordinated system of Jim Crow- based education.
The first school constructed and opened by the county was the T.B. Colored School in 1872, followed by a school near Brandywine in 1873. This latter school, housing grades one through seven, was totally financed by taxes. Schools continued to open during the 1870s and 1880s, all of which were one-room schools with one teacher.
Violence was directed against the schools, as the Croome Station School, opened in 1883, was attacked by arsonists in 1892. The school was not rebuilt by the county until 1903. (Thornton and Gooden 1997:135). By 1882, 22 schools for black children had been constructed and 23 teachers employed.
In 1890, the number of schools had increased to 28, compared with 60 for white children. There would not be a high school for African- Americans until 1928, when Lakeland High School, using Rosenwald funds, was constructed.
Rosenwald funds were also used to replace African-American grade schools during the early 1900s. Julius Rosenwald, the son of a German-Jewish immigrant, rose through the ranks in Sears, Roebuck and Company due to his success with the Sears mail-order catalog, becoming CEO of the corporation. In 1913 Rosenwald teamed with #BookerTWashington to create a matching grant program. Rosenwald would donate cash if the particular rural black community would contribute (either in cash or in-kind contributions such as land, lumber, and labor), and if the local school board would agree to operate the facility. The fund also provided architectural plans.
The schools were intended to be community enterprises between citizens and officials and between blacks and whites. Most common in the early days of the program were two- and three-teacher facilities, although larger buildings were constructed after the mid-1920s. By 1932, when construction grants ended, over 5,300 schools had been erected, including 153 in Maryland. A total of 23 of these structures was built in Prince George’s County.
By the 1950s, many of the Rosenwald schools were closed as the increased use of buses led to the consolidation of small schools. Many of the surviving Rosenwald school buildings in Prince George’s County have been significantly altered. Most are described as being of wood-frame construction, roughly square in plan, and one-story with a hip-roof.
? AUCTIONING OF TB COLORED SCHOOL
The property was auctioned in 1952 and altered for use as the sales and service office as a used car company. The property was sold in 2005, but remains in use as offices for a successor company, Brandywine Heavy Trucks and Equipment.
Resource https://www.mncppcapps.org/planning/publications/pdfs/217/Chapter%2006%20The%20African-American%20Experience.pdf
Copyright 2023 Myra Neale “All rights reserved”
Photo credit: Myra Neale