Segregated School Still Stands

In the sleepy little farm town of Swedesboro is a nondescript cinder block building with stories to tell. Known as the Richardson Avenue School, it was originally built as a Masonic Hall, but was used to serve the African-American school children of the area from 1931 to 1942. Containing a large room on each of the two floors with a coal stove for heat in the colder months, it was not far removed from the one-room schoolhouses of more rural areas. Several grades were taught at one time by a single teacher who had to create lesson plans and activities in all the subjects, including music, art and physical education. Inadequate from its beginning for that purpose, it became a school because of the “separate but equal” laws in the nation that sanctioned segregation.

Its history begins in the town before 1931. Prior to that date, all of the children of the community attended the Swedesboro Elementary School for the first six grades plus kindergarten. For the white children there was a classroom and a teacher for each grade. For the black children, the arrangement was more compact. One classroom was designated for grades one through three on the upper level, and a classroom for grades four through six was located in the basement. One black teacher taught the multiple grades in each classroom.

	Due to the growing student population and the racially divided times in 1931, over 130 black students were removed from the Swedesboro Elementary School and relocated to the Masonic Lodge on Richardson Avenue. This new building contained no fire exits, poor heating, limited bathrooms, no playground for the children and no transportation from the outlying farms where many of the children lived.
Richardson Ave. School in Swedesboro, built originally as a Mason meeting hall, served black children as a school for 11 years. It is the only remaining school building in New Jersey that specifically served black students.

Condemned as a school in 1940 by the state Board of Education, the town continued to use it for that purpose until 1942. At that time, the Auburn Avenue School, the last segregated school built in New Jersey, was constructed. Black children continued their education there until 1945, when the state decided to abolish segregation in its schools.

The period of having a proper school for their children was short lived, and in spite of efforts by the black community to preserve the Auburn Avenue School as an historic building, it was demolished on December 26, 1995. In its place is the Margaret C. Clifford School that now educates all of the elementary school students of Swedesboro.

Richardson Avenue School sits right next door to the newer Clifford building, and is looked after by a local group of black citizens who are working to restore it and preserve its history. For anyone who wants to listen, they will be happy to share its stories.

—By Pamela Coumbe, Writer, New Jersey School Boards Association

Photo by Pamela Coumbe