Santa Rosa's public school for Black students opened 114 years ago. They were honored Tuesday.
More than a century after Santa Rosa County opened its first public school for Black students, the city of Milton honored the lasting legacy of J.B. Turner School.
J.B. Turner School served students from grades one through nine, later adding a high school that would open the door for its students to enter college for the first time.
“It's very important that children know where they came from and the evolutionary line of the educational system so they can see where they are now to go back and study and to look at personalities and (know) they are somebody ...,” said LEAP Committee Chairwoman Mary Johnson at the unveiling of the historical marker to honor the school. “Love is stronger than hate and we need to find out as much as we can about each other so we can embrace each other and move in this world.”
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J.B. Turner School history
J.B. Turner School, which stood the corner of Mary and West Walker streets, was established in 1908 and named in honor of School Board Chairman Dr. J.B. Turner who hailed from Bagdad, Florida.
Before J.B. Turner, Black children were taught in “church schools” that were informal elementary schools because of the "separate but equal" Jim Crow era. This meant Black children had to travel by foot long distances to receive any type of schooling.
The challenges did not stop the teachers from exposing their children to possibilities and teaching them life lessons. In the 1948 J.B. Turner became a high school, which gave graduating students the opportunity to enter college after meeting state and county requirements.
The high school status enabled an expanded curriculum including Home Economics and Physical Education. The next school year they were able to field their first football team as the J.B. Turner Lions.
Herman James graduated from J.B. Turner in 1951 and was part of the football team. He remembers the students helping to build the basketball court, the teachers using their own money to help students − one teacher even buying him a coat − to the makeshift school bus they had to create to get students to school.
Their school books were hand me downs as well.
“In all 12 years I've never read out of a new book,” James said about the conditions of the school.
J.B. Turner added grades 10-11 from 1950 to 1952 but 12th-graders had to transfer to Booker T. Washington High School in Pensacola to graduate.
When J.B. Turner was shut down in 1952 students moved to T.R. Jackson High School, named after its first principal Theodis R. Jackson. There it graduated the first Black class in Milton in 1953, but closed its doors in 1968 to high school students.
Recognition long overdue
In 1974 the J.B. Turner/T.R. Jackson Alumni Association was established to continue to support the alumni and recognize individuals in the community who still hold these two educational institutions in their hearts.
The association wanted to find a way to recognize their school and four years ago started to work to get a marker. It was slowed down by COVID-19, but after getting support from the Milton's LEAP committee and with the help of the city council they were able to get a marker in place.
Julia Brown, president of the J.B. Turner/T.R. Jackson Alumni Association, attended J.B. Turner in the fifth and sixth grades and remembers how there were three classes separated by a partition in one large room. Anytime there was a school meeting they folded the walls up unveiling the other classes and had their meeting.
“This is wonderful. We've been trying for decades on how we could get J.B. Turner recognized and so now it's gonna be completed today,” Brown said with relief on Tuesday, standing at the spot overlooking where she once took classes as a young girl.
Alfred Brewton, who considers himself a community advocate, has been a continuous participant by constantly attending city council meetings and making sure the marker would be possible.
He said it's rewarding to finally get J.B. Turner recognized and to give generations of future students the opportunity to learn about not only its history but the history of Black education in Santa Rosa.
“Twenty or 30 years from now (they’ll) say 'wow, I didn't know that,' ” Brewton said about people walking by the marker. “Learning about their past from different people and they can have something to be proud of that probably their mama, daddy, or sisters and brothers was part of it. But the main thing is it’s a reflection of history in Black communities.”
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Milton honors Santa Rosa County's public school for Black students
