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Bowling Green and Warren County Schools In 1855 Kentucky's Superintendent of Public Instruction reported to the General Assembly that, on an average, 31% of Warren County's 3,575 white children attended school. That year the state allotment of $2,502.50 was shared among the county's 61 common schools. Only four of these schools offered more than a three-month session. A lack of financial support, textbooks, courses of study and qualified teachers plagued Kentucky's educational system during much of the nineteenth century. In Bowling Green, a number of private schools opened after the Civil War. The first graded, separate public elementary schools were established for black and white children in the town in the 1882. Kentucky's educational system improved with the 1908 School Law which provided for universal public education, an increased school tax, teacher certification, textbooks, quality schoolhouses and a system of county high schools. In 1909 Bowling Green and Warren County jointly opened a public high school available to all white children at the Center Street School. African-American children attended high school at the State Street School. |
Education for African-Americans In the early part of the nineteenth century Mr. and Mrs. H. M. Wolfe operated the Bowling Green Academy for Warren County's orphaned black girls and boys. To help finance their studies, students worked part-time on weekends for area white families. In 1886 Reverend Henry Carpenter was principal and teacher at the Cox Spring School, one of the first schools for black children in Warren County. Though the name changed to Delafield Colored School it was generally known as the "Carpenter School." In 1923, with aid from philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, a modern school building replaced the original one-room structure. In the 1920s, two other "Rosenwald schools" were built in Warren County; one in Bristow and another in Rockfield. State Street High School was the secondary school for black children in Bowling Green and Warren County. Before integration black students from the county attended high school in town. In the 1960s the new High Street High School replaced the State Street school. Football and basketball teams of the State Street and High Street high schools frequently competed at the state level. |
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Early Warren County Colleges and Normal Schools By the mid-nineteenth century, a number of academies, seminaries and "colleges" were established in Warren County. These institutions functioned as private high schools until the early 1900s when the public high school system was established. The schools drew students from outside the region. In some instances, entire families moved to Bowling Green to send their children to school. |
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Updated December 8, 2000 Created by Donna Parker with contribution from Sandy Staebell, Laura Harper Lee, Lynne Ferguson and Jon Kay. Send comments to KyMus@wku.edu URL: http://www.wku.edu/Library/onlinexh/rrr1/Pages/Mainpages/education.html |
