Jerkins High School

African-American education in Taylor County grew from Spring Hill Missionary Baptist Church, established in 1853 by a family of free blacks in what was then Rosehead, later Perry, and still the county's oldest congregation. Fires in 1919 and 1923 destroyed two later black schools in Perry, with the 1923 fire spilling over from the racially motivated destruction of the black Rosewood community in nearby Levy County. The original Jerkins High School was built in 1931 with funding from the Julius Rosenwald Fund Foundation, which helped build thousands of rural black schools, mostly in the South. Originally named Perry Negro High School, it was renamed in 1946 for principal Henry R. Jerkins, Jr., becoming the county's first school named for an African-American. During his tenure as principal from 1930 to 1937, Jerkins expanded the school's offerings to include all twelve grades, a rarity for black schools in Florida at the time. The 1931 building burned in 1943, the present facility was constructed in 1951, and the school closed in 1970 following integration before the school board donated it to the Taylor County Leadership Council in 1995.

Perry, Florida · United States