One of only historic Black schools still standing in Oklahoma was purchased
By Kilee Thomas
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STILLWATER, Oklahoma (KOCO) — One of the only historic Black schools still standing in Oklahoma has just been purchased.
An anonymous donor donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the city of Stillwater to preserve Booker T. Washington School.
“Their class motto in 1956 was, ‘Don’t wait for something to turn up, turn it up!’ That’s what we’ve been trying to do to save the history,” said Kevin Clark, from the Stillwater City Council.
One of the only three historic black schools in Oklahoma has been saved by an anonymous donor.
“We are in the process of purchasing the old Booker T. Washington School which is behind us here,” Clark said.
In a unanimous Monday, Stillwater’s City Council agreed to purchase the historic site after an anonymous donor gifted $250,000.
City leaders plan to preserve the original ‘T’ structure of the building and transform it into something Stillwater can be proud of.
“Our hope for the future is that the old classroom and administrative office will be used by the alumnae association for historical displays, community events, education opportunities,” said Norman McNickle, the city manager for Stillwater.
Momentum to save the school gained traction from a school pandemic project.
“This is one of the best images we have of it from about 1940,” said Laura Arata, an associate professor of history at Oklahoma State University.
What started as just documentation turned into a mission project.
“I asked if we could have some engineer and history students work together to document the structure and everything has grown out of that,” Arata said.
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