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.