E.D. Stroud School: A Georgia Equalization School

E.D. Stroud School was established in 1956 as part of a statewide "equalization" effort for Georgia's African-American public schools. As part of Georgia's massive resistance to federally mandated school integration, politicians and school officials sought to address the blatant geographic and racial disparities in education by constructing hundreds of new (but still segregated) schools across the state during the 1950s-60s. This school was built to replace the Watkinsville Rosenwald School, located here until its demolition in 1956. Named for Rosenwald School Principal Edwin David Stroud, E.D. Stroud School included a home economics lab as well as a workshop and cannery in addition to traditional academic subjects. In 1969, as part of a countywide plan for desegregation, E.D. Stroud School became the integrated Oconee County Intermediate School. The school was renamed Colham Ferry Elementary School in 1996.