The Steele Creek Historical and Genealogical Society
Of the Old Steele Creek Township
Mecklenburg County, North Carolina

McClintock (African-American) School

MCCLINTOCK (ROSENWALD) SCHOOL
(From: Gleanings, Vol. 2, No. 1, Jan-Mar 1995)

McClintock School was built in 1922-23 with matching funds by the Julius Rosenwald Foundation. The Foundation helped fund 5,300 African-American school buildings in the south. Twenty six schools were built in Mecklenburg County and about 10 are still standing. McClintock is the best preserved in it’s original state. The school has been placed on the Historic Properties in Charlotte-Mecklenburg.

The school sits on the property of McClintock Presbyterian Church which is located on Erwin Road, between Highway 49 (York Rd). and Hwy 160 (Steele Creek Road). Our thanks to the church for realizing the importance of this building to the community and taking steps to preserve it.

In 1994, one of our members, Dolly Hickman, interviewed two people who attended this school in their early years. Through these interviews we have a view of what school was like for African-American students at the time.

Interview with Charles Lucas (called "Boy Luke") and his wife, Leola. "Boy Luke" began the 1^st grade at the school in 1924 or 25 and attended for four years. The spring was replaced with a well and water pump after he started, but there was not a cup. In the winter, kids brought an armful of wood for the stove, gathered as they walked through the woods to school. They put their jar of milk in the drain from the spring with a rock on top of it. Their cup and corn bread was tied in a sack and hung from a tree. During cotton-picking time (last of Aug into Sept) they only went to school when it was raining. If the rain stopped during the day, school was dismissed.

The "outhouses" were equipped with Sears Roebuck Catalogs. The boys preferred to go to the red gully bank.

In the 1^st grade, everyone had one book to read from: "Baby Ray" or "Three Little Pigs". They had some geography and a lot of arithmetic in the 2^nd grade. History began in the 4^th grade. Every day began with all standing and saying the Lord’s Prayer. They stood up individually and recited a Bible verse. If you didn’t recite a new verse (taught by parents) you sat in the corner all day with your back to the class. If you got a "whuppin" at school, you got one when you got home. If you "told on somebody" you got a "whuppin" with the hickory switch. For talking in class, you went to the corner and stood on one foot for two hours.

Highlights from Eunice Grier McIlwaine Interview: The school had four rooms to house the 1^st - 7^th grades. Teachers often lived with parents of the students. There were wood stoves in each room and two "outhouses". The students brought their lunch but sometimes the teachers cooked soup or pinto beans on the stoves. In the 40’, a fruit truck came by on Tuesdays and Thursdays and sold fruit for a penny. The curriculum was: reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, history and geography. Spelling Bees were held on Friday - taken from 50 words learned during that week. If you missed, you stood in the corner until you could spell the word correctly.

At recess, boys and girls played separately: boys played ball and marbles - the girls played jump rope, dodge ball and jacks.

Some days they got to go into the church and sing hymns and spirituals.

At the high school at Pineville and Sterling, May Day was celebrated with dancing around the May Pole; free apples, oranges and candy was distributed.

According to Mrs. McIlwaine, Sterling High School in Pineville, was the closest high school for African-American children in Steele Creek. There were six African-American high schools in Mecklenburg County:

Sterling, Pineville, Huntersville, Torrence-Lytle, Plato Price and Clear Creek.

There was one in the City of Charlotte: 2^nd Ward.

Mrs. McIlwaine’s two older sisters went into Charlotte to live with a teacher at Second Ward School. That teacher, Mrs. Jessie McKain, was a former substitute teacher at Mclintock. They both attended grades 8 - 12 and graduated from Second Ward. Her father paid board by furnishing produce and hams, butter, eggs, etc. which he took to town on Saturdays to Mrs. McKain’s house on McDowell Street. Other children in the neighborhood also attended that school and lived with relatives in town while they were attending.

Some of the African-American families that attended the school and the adjoining McClintock Presbyterian church were: Grier, Foust, Woods, Hoover, Ervin, Potts, McGill and Withers.

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