The Rev. Tyler Millner Sr. is collecting documents, news clippings, oral histories and other information about George Washington Carver High School in an effort to preserve local African American history.
Millner, who graduated from Carver in 1964, said he was inspired to start the project after realizing he couldn’t find anything about the school beyond his own yearbook.
“I said, ‘That can’t be. We can’t let that happen. There will be a whole span with nothing,’” he said. “‘You can’t leave this whole chapter out of the Henry County history of education.’ That’s what launched me into the project, and I’m hoping it will be a community project.”
By consolidating materials into one collection, Millner said anyone interested in the school will be able to learn more about its history and legacy.
He’s asking former students and faculty to submit personal stories about their time at Carver.
“We are encouraging people to write either a half page or one full page describing whatever story or event impressed them,” he said. “Or write about a particular teacher or other personality that made an impact while you were at Carver.”
Millner is especially interested in collecting copies of the school’s yearbooks to showcase its teachers, staff and students. Last week, he received a copy of the school’s first yearbook from 1951. He now has four in his collection.
For those who have photographs, news articles or other artifacts they want to keep, Millner is asking for permission to copy or photograph them.
George Washington Carver High School was the first high school built for African Americans in Henry County in the 1950s.
Despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision that declared school segregation unconstitutional, Millner said Carver was still segregated when he graduated a decade later.
“I graduated in ’64 and they still were separate schools,” he said. “The next year, they started doing some integration, and I think it went all the way to ’69 when the courts really put pressure on the issue by saying, ‘You must integrate these schools.’”
For more information or to help with the project, contact Millner at (276) 224-3514 or tcmpastorms55@gmail.com.
