Colored School

The Havre de Grace Colored School was built in 1912. It provided a primary school education for African American children up to grade 8. At that time, there were no public high schools for Black youth in Harford County. In order to get a secondary education, Black students had to travel out of the county to places like Baltimore, Cecil County, or Philadelphia. To correct this issue, community leaders established a county-wide Parent Teacher Association (PTA) for Colored Schools. Mr. Clayton Stansbury, Sr. was named president. One of the first priorities of the PTA was the creation of a high school for Black children. Their efforts succeeded in 1930 when high school grades were added to the Havre de Grace Colored School. Leon S. Roye was appointed principal of the high school, making him the first African American principal in Harford County.

​

In 1953, the county opened the Havre de Grace Consolidated School at 201 Oakington Road. African American primary and secondary students from theschools in the Southern end of the county were combined at that school. Leon Roye remained the principal. Central Consolidated School had already opened in Bel Air for African American students in the Northern part of the County. Dr. Percy V. Williams was its principal for most of its existence. Both schools opened right before the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed segregation with the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954. Harford County was slow to desegregate, it was not until 1965 that schools were fully integrated. The class of 1965 was the last class to graduate from Havre de Grace Consolidated School.

​

Many former students fondly remember their days at both the Havre de Grace Colored School and Havre de Grace Consolidated. Ronald Hathaway said that they had great teachers, in and out of the classroom, 24/7. One of those teachers was Ms. Mabel Hart. A 1936 graduate of Havre de Grace Colored School, she received education degrees at Bowie State University and Morgan State University before returning to teach at Havre de Grace Consolidated School. Ms. Hart taught from 1945 to 1965, and she remained there when the school became Oakington Elementary, continuing to teach from 1965 to 1978, at which time she retired.In 2018, the buildings that once housed the Havre de Grace Colored School were acquired by The HdG Colored School Foundation of Community Projects of HdG, Inc., through the donation of a portion of the cost of the building by the Hirsch family. The Foundation is currently organized and named The Havre de Grace Colored School Museum & Cultural Center, Inc. On February 21, 2019, CPoHdG formally transferred ownership of the property to the HCSMCC. It is now a museum and cultural center.