Browse Exhibits (6 total)
Lincoln Heights: The Building Through the Years
Since its construction in 1923, Lincoln Heights has served its community in numerous ways. Within this exhibit you will find a brief history of the building along with a gallery which depicts the various changes made to the building from its early years to the present day.
Lincoln Heights Rosenwald School : "Opportunity through Education"
In 1924, African American children in northwestern North Carolina gained a chance at a better future as a new school opened in North Wilkesboro.1 This school was named Lincoln Heights and was seen as a place filled with opportunity. Appropriately, the slogan for the school became "Opportunity through Education."2 At one point in time, there were 25 elementary schools for African American children in Wilkes County, NC.3 However, Lincoln Heights was special. It was the only school in northwestern North Carolina where an African American could earn a high school diploma.4 Education was not just the opportunity. Rather, the education Lincoln Heights provided was the opening of another door: the opportunity to better one's self.
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[1] Wilkes County Retired School Personnel, Lest We Forget: Education in Wilkes, 1778-1978 (Winston-Salem, NC: Hunter Publishing Company, 1979).
[2] Frances Hayes, “History of black people in Wilkes explored in program,” Wilkes Journal-Patriot, February 26, 2014. http://www.journalpatriot.com/news/history-of-black-people-in-wilkes-explored-in-program/article_7dfd6880-9f17-11e3-b935-0017a43b2370.html
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
Rosenwald Schools: A History
Within this exhibit you will find an overview of the history Rosenwald Schools and African American education in the twentieth century. Ideas explored include issues African American education faced in the segregated South as well as the principles exemplified in projects, such as the Rosenwald Fund. The purpose of this exhibit is to provide a context for Lincoln Heights Rosenwald School.
Stories and Memories
This exhibit serves as an ongoing project providing you with a place to share your memories and stories of Lincoln Heights with the community. If you want to add a story of your own, simply go to the section of the website titled "Contribute an Item" and follow the instructions to submit a story or photograph to be used in our collections and exhibits for the purpose of telling the story of Lincoln Heights from the perspective of its people. Here is a compilation of your stories in which the voice of the Lincoln Heights community lives on.
Elizabeth Ann Parks Grinton
Elizabeth Ann Parks Grinton is a name well-known to those who attended Lincoln Heights Rosenwald School. Mrs. Grinton graduated from Lincoln Heights in the Class of 1935 before going on to Winston-Salem Teachers College and Columbia University.1 She taught elementary grades in Wilkes County (and at her alma mater, Lincoln Heights) and was a pivotal member of the area's community. In 1984, Mrs. Grinton bravely stood before a bulldozer to save the school from demolition.2 She also served as the executive director of the Lincoln Heights Recreation Board until her death in 2001.3 This exhibit explores the life and career of this astounding woman.
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[1] "Guide To Elizabeth Ann Parks Grinton Papers, 1931-2000, undated," Special Collections at Belk Library, accessed April 5, 2015, http://collections.library.appstate.edu/findingaids/ac623.
[2] Brenda Adams Dobbins, "Wilkes County Training Center/Lincoln Heights School, 1924-1968," (2015).
[3] Brenda Adams Dobbins, “Wilkes County Training Center.”
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