Warwick Lecture Series: Maury County Historian JoAnn McClellan
July 16 @ 6:00 pm - 7:15 pm
Education in Rural African American Communities: The Rosenwald Schools
JoAnn McClellan will share the history of how Maury County’s education system has evolved since emancipation in 1863. She will paint a picture of what it was like when schools were segregated and the dynamic impact of Rosenwald schools. Great educators like Rosenwald Superintendents Stella Howse Smith and Johnnie Belle Fulton made a powerful difference. She’ll also talk about Florence Ella Hatton’s fight for her teaching position and how it shined a light on how Maury County was a secretly noncompliance school district and full desegregation wasn’t realized for 16 years after the Supreme Court had ruled that segregated public schools were unconstitutional. Come and learn how Maury County Schools have changed over the years with the many educational opportunities offered in the past as well as today.
About the Speaker
Named as Maury County Historian in January of 2020, JoAnn McClellan is a prolific researcher and writer. Her first book, Gone But Not Forgotten — African American Cemeteries and 1908-1930 Death Records, was formally released in November 2009. Her continued research on the histories of African American churches and schools of Maury County, particularly Rosenwald Schools, is of great interest to her. In 2012, McClellan organized and became the founder and President of the African American Heritage Society of Maury County, a nonprofit organization, which established a presence to preserve the history and culture African Americans throughout Maury County.
Jo Ann was an active member of the Genealogical Society of Maury County of which she served two terms as President before the group disbanded due to COVID-19. In recent years, she served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Maury County Historical Society and the Maury County Senior Center. In 2013, McClellan led the way to add the names of 54 members of the United States Colored Troops and four white soldiers who served in U.S. regiments during the American Civil War to the War Memorial Monument at the steps of the Columbia Courthouse.