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Banneker takes time to celebrate its rich legacy
One-room building once stood on site
Friday, Nov. 28, 2008
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by JESSE YEATMAN
Dewayne Milburn puts a final touch on the 1930s song "Sing, Sing, Sing" by Louis Prima sung by Benjamin Banneker Elementary School fourth graders last week during a ceremony celebrating the heritage of the school and its namesake.
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Students young and old celebrated the legacy of Benjamin Banneker and the once all-African-American school that bears his name.
Before integration, Francis Barber went to the Banneker School in Loveville where he remembers his teachers fondly and feels he received a good education through his graduation in 1960.
"I felt that they were very interested in us growing up and becoming good citizens in our community," he said of his teachers. He said the teachers wanted students to achieve, "even though to a certain extent we were held back" because of racial intolerance.
"We grew up unaware of our surroundings in terms of what we could and could not do," Barber said. Although they could safely attend county carnivals and other events, some things were still off-limits to African-Americans even after 1954 when segregation was ruled unlawful. Barber's high school class was raising money for a field trip to Glen Echo Park in the late 1950s before a teacher told them the park was not integrated and they would not be allowed in.
Benjamin Banneker Elementary School students last week honored the famous African-American scientist and namesake to the school in Loveville that began 85 years ago as a place for black students to find an education.
On Nov. 21 some of the fifth-grade class interviewed several alumni of Banneker and took their pictures to include in a memory book for the school library.
The fourth-grade classes sang a variety of songs to walk the guests through time from the 1920s – with the song "Blue Skies" – through the decades that the school existed.
Barber, who attended the celebration with several other black alumni, said he was surprised, but pleased, that the students still embraced the school's legacy.
"The students are very talented," he said of the song routine at the celebration last week.
The roots of Banneker school began to grow in the late 1800s when a group of eight citizens formed a corporation known as the St. Mary's Colored High School, according to the historical book "In Relentless Pursuit of an Education," which outlines African-American education in St. Mary's County from 1865 to 1967 and includes several oral histories collected from Banneker alumni.
It wasn't until 1923 when a group called The Central Colored Industrial School was incorporated, which led to the founding of Banneker School in an old farmhouse on a 72-acre parcel on Route 5 north of Leonardtown. A group of parents called the United Parent Trustee Association made the school a success by taking care of the school building and property and by bearing the cost of buses for years.
The local school board refused to accept the school site the group founded until 1929, when the deed was signed over to the county school board for the sum of $1.
The school expanded to offer high school classes beginning in 1934 and operated as a combined elementary and high school for black students until integration reached St. Mary's County public schools in the late 1960s.
Another guest at the school last week was Everlyn Louise Swales Holland, who graduated from high school at the Banneker School in 1949. Her grandmother was a member of the United Parent Trustee Association.
"I think it's very good," that the students still look back at the history of the school and its namesake.
"My feeling is more should happen in the years to come," in terms of documenting the history of the school, she said. Much was lost over the years as the local school board would throw out documents and photos associated with the black schools, Holland said.
"It needs to go forward," she said.
Even during the decades of segregation when black schools were given the short end of school supplies, books and funding from the school boards, "They taught us well," Holland said of the teachers.
Last week during the school's celebration, the students and special guest alumni were treated to a one-woman act where fifth-grade teacher Lisa Lewis portrayed Banneker's grandmother, Molly Bannaky, who arrived in America as an indentured servant. The white woman earned her freedom and farm land, and then bought a slave with the intention to free him once her land was cleared.
The two fell in love and had a daughter, Mary Bannaky. She married a slave named Robert and gave birth to Benjamin Banneker on Nov. 9, 1731.
The Maryland-born African-American grew to be considered one of the first black scientists in the nation.
The amateur astronomer predicted solar and lunar eclipses and compiled ephemeris, or information tables, for annual almanacs that were published for several years in the 1790s.
Banneker helped in 1791 with the original survey of the Federal District, which is now Washington, D.C.
The U.S. Postal service issued a postage stamp with his image in 1980 to commemorate his achievements.
jyeatman@somdnews.com
