Atlanta, Ga., September 14, 2016 – The Georgia Historical Society will erect a new historical marker in Montezuma, Georgia, to the Macon County Training School, part of the Rosenwald school building program.

The keynote speaker for the event will be Dr. Samuel D. Jolley, Jr., Macon County Training School class of 1960.  Other speakers will include Willie J. Larry, immediate past mayor of Montezuma, class of 1958; Reverend Hosie Waters, Senior Pastor of Magnolia Baptist Church, class of 1958; and Elyse Butler, Outreach Coordinator for the Georgia Historical Society. LaVerne Moone Wyche, class of 1958, will serve as mistress of ceremonies.

The dedication will take place Sunday, September 18, 2016, at 3:00 p.m. at Magnolia Baptist Church, 415 Hosie Waters Street, Montezuma, GA.  The media and the public are invited to attend.

The historical marker reads:

Macon County Training School
A Rosenwald School

The Macon County Training School (M.C.T.S), built on this site in 1925, was part of the Rosenwald school building program that matched funds from philanthropist Julius Rosenwald with community donations to build schools for African Americans during the era of segregation.  By the 1930’s one in every five rural southern schools for African Americans had been constructed with aid from the fund.  One of two Rosenwald schools in the county, M.C.T.S. offered an alternative to privately funded schools, such as the Lamson-Richardson School in Marshaville.  In the 1950’s, M.C.T.S. became the main school for African Americans, offering first through twelfth-grade classes.  The last class graduated in 1958 when M.C.T.S. closed, though county schools remained segregated.  The building was demolished in 1999 and Magnolia Baptist Church was built at this site 2006.

Erected by the Georgia Historical Society and the
Macon County Training School Alumni

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