Prospect Public School

Prospect School, for six decades Scott County's only public school for African Americans, moved into a new building 1.5 miles northwest of here ca. 1919. Contributions for the two-room school came from the black community ($1,200), the county ($600), and the Julius Rosenwald Fund ($500). Created by the president of Sears, Roebuck, and Co. and inspired by the work of Booker T. Washington, the fund helped build more than 5,000 schools for black children in the South and supported two additions to Prospect in the 1920s. The school offered grades 1-7, and black students who sought further education had to leave the county. Prospect School closed in 1965 with desegregation and was later demolished.

Gate City, Virginia · United States