Dorchester Academy
Formal education of blacks started with the Freedmen´s Bureau in Liberty County. The Homestead School was continued with the aid of the American Missionary Association (AMA) and support of Reconstruction legislator William A. Golding. The AMA started with one acres of land and 77 students in 1870. In 1874, the Reverend Floyd Sneison succeeded Golding at the school. The AMA and Sneison built a new school and named it Dorchester Academy in honor of its Puritan lineage. In 1890, Dorchester Academy started a boarding school. By 1917, the school had eight frame buildings on 103 acres, 300 students, and become a fully accredited hisgh school.
The academic program ceased in 1940, with the construction of a consolidated publis school for black youth at Riceboro. All academic equipment plus $8,000 were transferrred toward that consolidation. Since, the facilities have served the community under the title Dorchester Cooperative Center, Inc. AMA continues financial support.
GHM 089-26 Georgia Historic Marker 1983
Plaque courtesy Lat34North.com.
Original page, with additional info, here.
Photo credit: onfire4jesus.