GILMORE ACADEMY

In 1922, Robert T. Gilmore (1879-1948), born in Monticello, founded Gilmore Academy, one of Jackson County’s first African-American high schools. Trustees of Marianna’s African-American community purchased this three-acre site in 1907 and raised $2,500 of the $4,500 needed to qualify for a Rosenwald Fund grant to build a two-story, limestone, six-teacher school. Created by philanthropist Julius Rosenwald (1862-1932) and educator Booker T. Washington (1856-1915), the fund financed the building of 5,395 schools between 1912 and 1932 to address the dismal state of education for southern blacks. After graduating its first class in 1931, the Academy was renamed Jackson County Training School (J.C.T.S.) As enrollment grew, grades 1-6 moved to the nearby Baptist Academy. In 1952, 85 years after the Colored School Society petitioned the state to build a school for newly freed slaves, the County built an elementary school on South Street. A high school was built on the same site in 1956, and Gilmore Academy closed. In 1970, 16 years after desegregation, J.C.T.S. became Marianna Middle School. Although the schools were separate and unequal, principals, faculty and staff helped thousands of students become productive citizens.