The First Annual Bulletin of Clover Colored Graded School

Clover, S.C.: [Clover Colored Graded School], 1926. Very good. 8½" x 5½". Two folded bifolia. Pp. [8]. Very good: a few faint creases; lightly toned.

This is a rare bulletin issued by the only African American grade school in Clover, South Carolina, after its first year of existence. The bulletin shared the school's principles, information on its finances, and noted the need for improvements, soliciting "the cooperation of all the people of both races." There was also a list of the school's trustees and faculty, as well as a full roster of all enrolled students by grade. The school's principal, Captain Phillip Thomas White, graduated from Shaw University, an HBCU in Raleigh, North Carolina. Before coming to Clover, he had been a professor at Friendship College in Rock Hill, secretary of the fifth congressional district of South Carolina, and a delegate to the National Republican Convention of 1912. He also published The Messenger, the official newspaper for the Black Freemasons within the state.

Despite Brown v. Board of Education, Clover schools were not fully integrated until 1970. The Clover Colored Graded School transitioned into the Roosevelt School around the 1940s, and the building was closed in 1990 when a new school was built. However, the African American community of Clover rallied to repurpose the school as an event and community center of their own. After the building was demolished in 1995 due to asbestos, the community developed the Roosevelt Park and Community Watch program in its honor.

A rare glimpse into African American education in a small Southern town. OCLC shows one holding, with no evidence of any later bulletins.