In 1915, four influential African American residents of South Hill—the Rev. J. H. Simmons,
Mary E. Simmons, Robert Walker, and James E.
Skipwith—established the Mecklenburg County
Training School for black students. The school
operated in the True Reformer Lodge Hall for
three terms before a two-room frame building
was constructed in 1918. Matilda M. Booker,
Jeanes supervisor of black teachers in 1920,
secured $1,500 from the Rosenwald Fund and
encouraged parents to raise another $3,000 for
a new school building. With the county's aid,
the 500-student school was completed near here
in 1925. It burned in 1942.
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