Veteran reporter Ben Steelman has been attempting to track down this answer, but it has him elusive. Here’s part of an e-mail he sent to me this week:
“The Wrightsboro Colored School one has stumped me. None of our usual sources have much about it, since it dates to when the city and New Hanover County had separate school systems; also a lot of records were destroyed in the Hemenway School fire back in the ‘70s.”
Ben was able to locate a man whose grandmother had been a teacher at the school prior to 1954, but the man knew nothing else about the school, not even where the building was.
So we’re tossing this one to the readers in hopes somebody will be able to answer the question posed by Jackson Jordan.
If you know more about this school, please share your knowledge with other readers by posting comments below. Thank you very much.
Date posted: August 5, 2010
User-contributed question by:
Jackson Jordan
To my knowledge, the only colored school in Wrightsboro was the Acorn Branch School. It was located on the Acorn Branch Road next to the St Philip AME Zion Church. The Principal at the school was William H Blount and Elsie Henry and Katie Goode were teachers there. The Blount School in East Wilmington is named after William H Blount There was another teacher named Ms Lofton.
The actual school was a two room structure which was later increased to a three room structure due to increased enrollment. I actually attended that school for first and second grades.