The original part of this building was home to one of the oldest African American schools in Dale County. In 1949, a new building for the Pinckard Colored School was constructed on this site, and Mack M. Matthews became its principal. After the school building burned in 1959, it reopened in 1961. In 1962, a metal building from Newton was moved here to serve as a lunchroom. In 1964, a gymnasium was constructed, and the Dale County School Board changed the name to the Mack M. Matthews School. In 1965, both houses of the Alabama legislature passed a resolution supporting the name change. In 1969, the segregated Mack M. Matthews School closed. In 1971, the Dale County School Board reopened it as an integrated middle school under the name South Dale Middle School. The original building retains its historic exterior appearance from the period when it operated as a segregated black school from 1961 to 1969. The campus also includes a 1987 cafeteria and a 1999 classroom addition, and the building was listed in the Alabama Register of Landmarks Heritage in 2011. Mack M. Matthews, born in Dale County on June 8, 1902, was the first child of Monroe and Dollie Matthews. He married Inella Crittenden, and they had six children. He graduated from Lomax-Hannon College, received his BS Degree from Alabama State College, and also attended Troy State College. He served as a teacher and principal at Pinckard Colored School in Pinckard, Alabama. His contribution to education was honored when the school was renamed for him, and during his teaching career he helped shape the lives of many school children in Dale and Houston Counties, Ozark City Schools, and Graceville, Florida Schools. He was the first chairman of the Ozark Voters League and its first honorary life chairman, and he was named Ozark, Alabama's Outstanding Man of the Year in 1975.