Bernard School

Bernard School was the segregated facility for African-American education in McMinnville, Tennessee. In the summer of 1921, Professor J. E. Wood, principal of the City School for Negroes, investigated the Rosenwald Building Program and invited the committee to McMinnville to consider building an adequate school for his people. Staff from the State Department of Education met with members of the city that resulted in a planned campaign for building funds, to which the African-American community contributed $1,000.00. In the fall of 1921, the present site was purchased for erection of a seven-teacher school building that opened in January 1922. CONTINUED Months later, the school was named for Ollie H. Bernard, the Rosenwald agent for Tennessee, who aided in brining the school to a successful completion. On August 17, 1946, fire completely consumed the original structed. In 1947 the school was rebuilt. Journalist, author and diplomat Carl T. Rowan was its most distinguished alumnus. The first African-American Deputy Secretary of State and the first African-American Director of the United States Information Agency (USIA). Rowan also served as the Ambassador to Finland. The school remained a part of the Warren County School system until it was razed in 1982.