Bedford County’s first public school for African Americans was known as Slip up, and between 1889 and 1894, 27 mostly one-teacher schools for African Americans were established in communities across the county. Organized in 1895 in Shelbyville, McAdams was the first public high school for African Americans there and was named for Professor John McAdams, who served as principal. From 1895 to 1966, African American schools at this location included McAdams, where John McAdams served as principal for 40 years; after a joint venture between the county and the city, the school became Bedford County Training School, where Sidney W. Harris served as principal from 1935 to 1960; and from 1960 to 1966, Harris High occupied the site, with Sidney W. Harris as principal and Will P. Martin serving as principal from 1965 to 1966. The Bedford County Training School Fighting Tigers football team went unbeaten at 82-0-4 from 1943 to 1950 and won Middle Tennessee Athletic Association state titles between 1943 and 1948. Harris High School won the 1965 Tennessee Athletic Association Girls' State Basketball Championship. Among alumni were Eugene Ray, Jr., class of 1956, who served as Bedford County mayor for 12 years; Earl Rippie, Jr., DMV, class of 1959, who owned and operated the Pennsauken Animal Hospital; Lonnie Reynolds, class of 1962, a U.S. Army Beret who appeared in the movie The Green Berets with John Wayne; and Jim Mitchell, class of 1965, an All-American at Prairie View A&M College of Texas who played 11 years for the Atlanta Falcons.