E.D. Stroud School was established in 1956 as part of a statewide equalization effort for Georgia’s African-American public schools. During Georgia’s massive resistance to federally mandated school integration, politicians and school officials sought to address blatant geographic and racial disparities in education by constructing hundreds of new but still segregated schools across the state during the 1950s-60s. The school was built to replace the Watkinsville Rosenwald School, which had stood here until its demolition in 1956. Named for Rosenwald School Principal Edwin David Stroud, E.D. Stroud School included a home economics lab as well as a workshop and cannery in addition to traditional academic subjects. In 1969, as part of a countywide plan for desegregation, it became the integrated Oconee County Intermediate School, and in 1996 it was renamed Colham Ferry Elementary School.