By Dixie Norwood
MSNHA graduate assistant
Did you know that a Civil War fort became the site of the first accredited high school for African Americans?
In 1862, while Union forces occupied Athens, it was determined that a fort was needed in Limestone County. The fort, designed to be a five-sided fortification, was completed by the 110th U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment in 1863. Fort Henderson, as it was named, passed between Union and Confederate hands throughout the rest of the war years.
Soon after the war, a group known as the Western Freedman’s Aid Commission decided that a school was needed for the education of former slaves and their children. This school, known as the Trinity School, was built near the former fort site. The American Missionary Association, a Protestant-based abolitionist group, soon focused its attention on the new school in Athens. One of this group’s main focus was the education of African Americans.
In 1879, a fire almost caused the American Missionary Association to consider abandoning the school, but thanks to monetary and labor help from local residents, the school was rebuilt. The school again burned in 1907 and was rebuilt on the site of the old fort. Trinity School soon became Trinity High School, becoming the first accredited high school in Alabama for African Americans.
The school remained open and in use until 1979, when it was forced to close due to the integration of the school systems. As of 2015, the Athens-Limestone Community Association was in the process of renovating Trinity High School and the site of Fort Henderson.
For more information, visit http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-4020, http://amistadresearchcenter.tulane.edu/archon/?p=creators/creator&id=53, or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Missionary_Association
To see what the school looked like in the early 1900s, visit http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/m-9213
To explore what the site looks like today, go to our Hidden Places project.
