Old school a symbol of strength

Posted: Saturday, May 05, 2001

   Fifty years after its close, Tyrone Barnett still remembers his first two years of school in the one-room schoolhouse at Chestnut Grove Church on Epps Bridge Parkway.

   ''It was like one big family and each class had a different section of the room,'' said Barnett, now 58. ''The upper-grade guys would go get firewood for the woodstove and at recess we played together different games.''

   Barnett attended the Chestnut Grove School -- which served the black community -- before one-room rural schools in Georgia were closed in favor of consolidated county schools in 1950. Since that time, one-room schoolhouses in Athens have fallen into disrepair and most have disappeared.

   A movement began in 1974 to save the Chestnut Grove School, and the efforts will culminate at 2 p.m. today at a Dedication and Jubilee Celebration at the school, 610 Epps Bridge Parkway near Timothy Road.

   The dedication also marks the celebration for the slaves of Athens who where freed in May 1865. Keynote speaker Michael Thurmond, state labor commissioner and an Athens native, will speak on the end of slavery in Athens-Clarke County.


 Chalk writings from as early as 1949 have been refurbished at Chestnut Grove School. Inspirational biblical passages were recently added to chalkboard walls. The one-room school was the first to educate blacks in Athens-Clarke County.Cameron Swartz 

Now restored to its original condition after 50 years of disrepair, Chestnut Grove School stands as a symbol of strength for the Athens black community.

   ''This was the first organized effort on the part of the black community to educate their young after the slaves were freed,'' Barnett said. ''Prior to that they weren't allowed to go to school.''

   The school was built in 1896 and is the last remaining one-room schoolhouse for black children in Clarke County.

   Event organizer Annabell Matthews said the main reason for salvaging the school is to leave a historical legacy to the black children of Athens-Clarke County.

   ''History did not start with Martin Luther King,'' Matthews said. ''The children will never know that if we don't do this. It doesn't take a beautiful place to learn.''


 The Chesunt Grove School is a rennovated one room school house on the corner of Timothy Road and Epps Bridge Rd. Cameron Swartz 

Today's dedication features an exhibit of pictures and news articles documenting the history of Athens and the black community and highlighting the teachers and students of the Chestnut Grove school.

   ''Those teachers knew the importance of education because they wanted them to have a better life than the ones before them had,'' said Roberta Barnett, Tyrone Barnett's mother. ''Education was an important part of that, and many of them did go on to become doctors, lawyers and businessmen.''

   Tyrone Barnett said the country has come a long way in providing a good education with better facilities for all its citizens, but as for his own education, he wouldn't change a thing.

   ''There are a lot of youngsters who don't know this existed,'' he said. ''Our ancestors probably rejoice that their descendants not only remember them but put forth an effort to preserve their history.''



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