Undated photo of Dunbar School
Photo| Dunbarheritageplace.org
CLIO— Dunbar Heritage Place will host a music festival in Clio Saturday on 3023 Hebron Dunbar Road to pull together the Dunbar community. The event is an all-white affair to bid summer farewell. The event will have food trucks, live bands, and other vendors.
While the festival is sure to be a hit, it is important to note that there is a rich history of Dunbar Heritage Place. Dunbar Heritage Place is a Rosenwald school that was built in 1926.
According to the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, “in 1915, Sears and Roebuck President, Julius Rosenwald, established a matching grant fund in his name to construct better quality black schools throughout the South. Between 1917 and 1932, his Fund assisted in the construction of over 5,000 school buildings, forever changing the rural Southern landscape. Nearly 500 buildings were constructed in South Carolina. At a time when State support for educating African American children was woefully inadequate, Rosenwald Schools played a critical role in educating South Carolina’s children.
Though over one-third of black children in the South in the first half of the twentieth century passed through the doors of a Rosenwald school, today, many of these schools of hope have disappeared from the landscape. In South Carolina, many became victims of neglect and abandonment as a result of the School Equalization Program (or 3% sales tax program), started in 1951 under Governor James Byrnes, which consolidated rural black schools by building state-of-the-art new black schools in an effort to thwart integration. Other Rosenwald schools have been severely altered and still others stand empty awaiting a new life.”
The Dunbar Heritage Place is one of thelast standing buildings out of 13 schools that were built in Marlboro County.
The Dunbar Heritage Place has been used for many things over the years when not vacant, such as a venue for family reunions, and committee and club meetings. It was even utilized by the local Presbyterian church years ago.
The current owner, Mrs. McDonald’s goal is to turn Heritage Place into a hub for the community. Heritage Place is important to McDonald’s family as her grandmother and mother attended the school.
The Dunbar Heritage Place’s mission statement is, “As a community, we are working to restore the rich history of the Dunbar School, a Rosenwald School. Everything we do here will be with purpose. We will strive to uplift and encourage those still living in the Dunbar community and beyond the country roads and fields that border it.”
The Dunbar Community encourages people to attend and learn more about this historical place and its importance to the community and culture.
For more information or to purchase tickets, please visit dunbarheritageplace.org or call (704) 492-5112.