VOA标准英语2010年-US Segregation-Era Schools Get New Lif

Alumni work to save buildings designed to educate rural African Americans

Susan Logue Koster | Dillwyn, VA 25 February 2010

Watch: Logue Koster Report
MP4

 Wilbert Dean was moved to save his school when he saw it was being used as a trash dump.

Related Links
More on the Rosenwald Schools from the National Trust for Historic Preservation¹

"What this school provided me was inspiration, people that told me I could do whatever I wanted to do." - Harvey Shelton, 1953 graduate of Buckingham Training School

For many decades, schools in the American south were segregated³ based on race. Although the U.S. Supreme⁴ Court ruled in 1954 that segregation⁵ was unconstitutional, many states fought the decision, and it took years before their schools were fully⁶ integrated. In rural areas of the South, buildings that once served as schools for African Americans have been abandoned for decades. Now, some former students are at the forefront of efforts to preserve them.

Buckingham Training School in Dillwyn, Virginia, is being restored to serve a new generation, thanks in large part to Wilbert Dean. "I was moved to do something," he says. "It had turned into a trash dump. They were collecting trash at this site where I went to school."

Dean went to school here for three years, beginning in 1953, when he was 11 years old and in the 5th grade. "Without this school, I would not be standing⁷ here today, because the school gave me an opportunity to finish high school." Dean would go on to get a master's degree in business administration.

Harvey Shelton, who attended Buckingham Training School from 1947 to 1953, credits it with setting him on the path that led to a doctorate⁸ degree from Virginia Tech. "I probably would have gone to high school and maybe even college if this school hadn't been here." But Shelton says it would have been more difficult. "What this school provided me was inspiration, people that told me I could do whatever I wanted to do."

One of thousands

Built in 1923, Buckingham Training School provided generations of African Americans with that inspiration. It was one of more than 5,000 Rosenwald schools built with funding from Julius Rosenwald. The co-owner of Sears and Roebuck, one of America's largest retailers⁹, financed the effort at the urging of Booker T. Washington, a former slave who became a prominent educator.

But Rosenwald only footed half the bill. "The local community had to come together and provide the other half of the money to build these schools," says David Brown, executive vice¹⁰ president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which is guiding efforts to save the Rosenwald schools. 

"They were begun around 1912, and that was a time when there was no education for blacks in the rural South, so this was a big step forward for the black community."

Built along plans that were comparable to schools being built for white children, the Rosenwald schools were considered state of the art for their time. But by the time schools in the South were integrated in the mid-20th century, they were out of date, and soon abandoned.

Serving the community again

Brown says the National Trust for Historic Preservation began hearing from alumni in late 1990s, seeking help to save their schools. Since then, seven schools have been given new life in their communities with help from Lowe's home improvement stores and volunteers.  

"We really want to see these places reused," says Brown. "They were built as symbols of community pride and they were centers of community life and we want them to continue in that vein¹¹." 

Wilbert Dean says Buckingham Training School will reopen as a community center at the heart of a four-hectare (acre?) county park, Ellis Acres.  The park is named for Rev¹². Stephen J. Ellis, the man who led the campaign to establish the Buckingham Training School when black children were barred from attending the county secondary school.

"We can take this land that was designed to segregate² the county and split it apart, we can use the same land and these same facilities to bring the county together," Dean says, "to make Buckingham a better place and improve the quality of life."

Senior citizens in Rappahannock County, Virginia, congregate¹³ at Scrabble School in Castleton, Virginia, four days a week.

Scrabble School, in Castleton, Virginia, is already doing that. The history of the school and the struggle African Americans faced to get an education is prominently displayed along one wall. But when Scrabble reopened its doors in May 2009, it did so as the Rappahannock County Senior Center, at the suggestion of  Dorothy Warner. "I went up to the old senior citizens' building one day, and they were in a room that was half this size, and we had a meeting that night, and I said, 'We can put our seniors in there.'"

Warner didn't go to school at Scrabble, but her husband, who was at the forefront of restoration efforts, did. E. Franklin Warner, who became a budget analyst¹⁴ in the White House, died in 2003, and Dorothy took up the cause. She says the school was a reminder¹⁵ to him of how far he and his classmates, some of whom became doctors and lawyers, had come. "He would probably say we made something of ourselves coming from a two-room school."

Many graduates of Rosenwald schools did, despite the fact that when they were students, African Americans were often treated as second-class citizens.  Alumni want to ensure that the history of their schools is remembered for generations to come. 
 

1 preservation   

n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持

参考例句：

• The police are responsible for the preservation of law and order.警察负责维持法律与秩序。
• The picture is in an excellent state of preservation.这幅画保存得极为完好。

2 segregate   

adj.分离的，被隔离的；vt.使分离，使隔离

参考例句：

• We have to segregate for a few day.我们得分离一段日子。
• Some societies still segregate men and women.有的社会仍然将男女隔离。

3 segregated   

分开的； 被隔离的

参考例句：

• a culture in which women are segregated from men 妇女受到隔离歧视的文化
• The doctor segregated the child sick with scarlet fever. 大夫把患猩红热的孩子隔离起来。

4 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

5 segregation   

n.隔离，种族隔离

参考例句：

• Many school boards found segregation a hot potato in the early 1960s.在60年代初，许多学校部门都觉得按水平分班是一个棘手的问题。
• They were tired to death of segregation and of being kicked around.他们十分厌恶种族隔离和总是被人踢来踢去。

6 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

7 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

8 doctorate   

n.(大学授予的)博士学位

参考例句：

• He hasn't enough credits to get his doctorate.他的学分不够取得博士学位。
• Where did she do her doctorate?她在哪里攻读博士？

9 retailers   

零售商，零售店( retailer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• High street retailers reported a marked increase in sales before Christmas. 商业街的零售商报告说圣诞节前销售量显著提高。
• Retailers have a statutory duty to provide goods suitable for their purpose. 零售商有为他们提供符合要求的货品的法定义务。

10 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

11 vein   

n.血管，静脉；叶脉，纹理；情绪；vt.使成脉络

参考例句：

• The girl is not in the vein for singing today.那女孩今天没有心情唱歌。
• The doctor injects glucose into the patient's vein.医生把葡萄糖注射入病人的静脉。

12 rev   

v.发动机旋转，加快速度

参考例句：

• It's his job to rev up the audience before the show starts.他要负责在表演开始前鼓动观众的热情。
• Don't rev the engine so hard.别让发动机转得太快。

13 congregate   

v.(使)集合，聚集

参考例句：

• Now they can offer a digital place for their readers to congregate and talk.现在他们可以为读者提供一个数字化空间，让读者可以聚集和交谈。
• This is a place where swans congregate.这是个天鹅聚集地。

14 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

15 reminder   

n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示

参考例句：

• I have had another reminder from the library.我又收到图书馆的催还单。
• It always took a final reminder to get her to pay her share of the rent.总是得发给她一份最后催缴通知，她才付应该交的房租。