(Early Garrison students, c. 1910, Ponder)
Becoming Garrison
Garrison School earned the reputation as the best school for African American students in the state of Missouri.
Clay County African American Legacy, Inc.
In 1896 the Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that “separate but equal” facilities were constitutional. In Liberty, Missouri, African-Americans had no access to education until a progressive white woman, Mrs. Laura Armstrong, opened a school for non-white children in her home. Shortly after, another forward-thinking woman, Mrs. Lucretia Robinson, opened a private school for African-Americans. Finally, in 1877, a public school was established for Liberty's African-American children.
Liberty clung to Southern attitudes and traditions.
Liberty Tribune
Many distinguished educators served at the newly built school, which was named after abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. The Garrison community was tight-knit, and local 1946 census documents show many of the students lived on the same street. Despite Liberty's Southern traditions, Garrison school became known as an extraordinary place of education.
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If it had not been for the Negro school the Negro would, to all intents and purposes, have been driven back to slavery.
W.E.B. DuBois