Reynolds School

Twelve high school students (and two elementary school students) wear graduation clothes and pose for a picture on the front steps of an unknown building.

Same photo as above with name tags overlaid in proximity to each student.

Four of the twelve high school students stand and talk casually with the two elementary school students.

African Americans did not have the opportunity to attend high school in Haywood County until the construction of the Reynolds School in 1948. Built in the predominantly black neighborhood of Gibsontown, the brick structure included eight classrooms, a library, a gymnasium/auditorium, a lunchroom, and a shop for vocational training.

The school served elementary-age students from Canton and Clyde as well as high school students from all over Haywood County. When the county finally desegregated its schools in 1966, the Reynolds School closed and its students were transferred to formerly white-only schools or the newly-built Pisgah and Tuscola high schools. This photo includes the graduating class of 1955 (plus their two “mascots”).

Learn more about the Reynolds School here

Photographs courtesy of Canton Historical Museum