12 June 1913: Benefit for the Model Training School at the Morton Theatre

On this day in 1913, the Athens Banner ran an unusual notice for a benefit at the Morton Theatre for the Model Training School on Danielsville Road:

The Model Training School was founded in 1903 by Judia C. Jackson, a native of Clarke county; she married another well-known local African-American educator, Samuel F. Harris, in 1912.  She donated her own land for the school, which was across the road from her home. Funds from the General Education Board of New York for the building and Clarke county paid for the building and school furnishings. 

The curriculum was grammar, algebra, Latin, black history, art, music, and drama. The students would occasionally perform in pageants or plays written by Ms. Jackson Harris, and hold the performances at the Morton Theatre or Colonial Theatre. Displays of student projects were sometimes given a window at Michael Brothers department store downtown to show examples of the work accomplished at the school. Many of her students went on to college and became educators and community leaders themselves.

The Model Training School also acted as a county community center. Ms. Jackson Harris helped organize Land Owner Clubs, where local African-American farmers would pool their money to buy land that they could then divide amongst themselves to cultivate. The school hosted agricultural fairs for the community, featuring prizes for canned goods, cakes, livestock, pickles, and other farm products. In the summer, Ms. Jackson "operated a summer cannery for the local farmers and their families." By 1915, the clubs owned 440 acres, a community saw mill, a cotton gin, and a thresher. 

Unfortunately, there was no review of the benefit concert in the Athens Banner the next day, nor is there any record of how much money was raised for the school. The school was later renamed the Judia Jackson Harris Model and Industrial School. Ms. Jackson Harris remained principal of the school until 1950, when she retired. In 1956, the Athens city schools merged with the Clarke county schools, and the Model Training School was finally closed.

Learn More:

• Athens Banner, Feb. 1913 - Jun. 1913 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• A Story Untold: Black Men and Women in Athens History by Michael L. Thurmond in the Heritage, general, and Young Adult collections.
• Athens: A Pictorial History by James K. Reap in the Heritage, general, and Reference collections.
• A History of Education in Georgia by Dorothy Orr in the Heritage collection.
• Education: Reflecting Our Society by Gina Giuliano in the Reference collection.
• Teaching Equality: Black Schools in the Age of Jim Crow by Adam Fairclough in the general collection.
• Separate but Not Equal: The Dream and the Struggle by James Haskins in the children's collection.
• Faithful, Firm, and True: African-American Education in the South by Titus Brown in the Heritage collection.
• Black Vaudeville, the TOBA, and the Morton Theatre: Recovering the History 1910-1930 by Thomas L. Riis in the Heritage and general collections.
• The Morton Theatre, Athens, Georgia: Adaptive Rehabilitation of a 1910 Theatre by the Clarke County Office of Cultural Affairs in the Heritage collection.
•  Morton Theatre website.
• Judia Jackson Harris Elementary Charter School website.