From the years 1889 to 1950, the only local high school for Black students’ education was located at 1000 Main Street in Daphne. As the first school built to educate African American children, The Eastern Shore Baptist Academy (its original name) was built on 18 acres of land purchased by the Eastern Shore Missionary Baptist Association. This was back in 1882; in 1892, the Association constructed a dormitory to house Black children who lived throughout the county, as well as those attending from surrounding counties. 

The Association also funded the educators and administrators of the school. In 1916, the school, dormitory, and land were deeded to the Baldwin County Board of Education, and the school was renamed the Eastern Shore Colored Industrial School. In 1927, the school was again renamed, this time as the Baldwin County Training School, to give Black students throughout the county, and those from neighboring counties, a public high school education.

In 1991, the Baldwin County Training School Heritage Fest Foundation was created, with its mission being (as their website says) “to research, restore, accurately interpret and preserve the rich heritage and excellent contributions of our ancestors and ensure its proper interpretation in American history.”  In 1997, the Foundation awarded the first scholarship to students whose ancestors had gone to the school, no matter what its name had been at the time.

Mrs. Gartrell Agee, who taught Math in the Baldwin County School system, is currently the leader of the Museum. She was a student at the school, then became a Math teacher, teaching at Fairhope Elementary School for 20 years. For 18 years after that, she was a principal at what was then Fairhope Intermediate School.

“The ‘Fest” part of our name is not an annual festival,” Agee says, as she points to her name on a school roster. “Every few years, we hold a kind of reunion. The first one was on July 5, 1991. People said if we had a hundred people show up, we’d be lucky.” She laughs softly and adds, “We had 497 people sign up to attend that  first year.” 

The Black Education Museum was dedicated and opened to the public on July 1, 2009. It was a partnership with the Foundation and the Baldwin County Board of Education (note from the writer: my mother-in-law, the late Jeanne Franklin Lacey, was one of the educators who was extremely passionate about the project and was there at its dedication).

Currently, one project underway is to complete their “legacy walk,” using brick pavers purchased by students or in memory or in honor of a deceased family member who had attended the school.  The Foundation itself earned 501c (3) status in 1991, the year of its inception. Learn more about the Black Education Museum at DaphneAL.com and HistoricBaldwinCountyTrainingSchool.com. Their telephone number is 251.510.0355.