In 1915, four influential African American residents of South Hill—the Rev. J. H. Simmons, Mary E. Simmons, Robert Walker, and James E. Skipwith—established the Mecklenburg County Training School for black students. The school operated in the True Reformer Lodge Hall for three terms before a two-room frame building was constructed in 1918. Matilda M. Booker, Jeanes supervisor of black teachers in 1920, secured $1,500 from the Rosenwald Fund and encouraged parents to raise another $3,000 for a new school building. With the county’s aid, the 500-student school was completed near here in 1925. It burned in 1942.