Oldest Black Schoolhouse In America Unearthed—Opened To Public On Juneteenth

The Williamsburg Bray School is believed to be the oldest known schoolhouse for Black children in America.

The Williamsburg Bray School—believed to be the oldest known schoolhouse for Black children in America—officially opened to the public on Juneteenth, following a groundbreaking archaeological discovery by William & Mary University researchers.

According to The Independent, William & Mary President Katharine A. Rowe emphasized the significance of the discovery in understanding the roots of both the city and the university.

“The roots of our city and university entwine here,” Rowe said. “Every layer of history that it reveals gives us new insights into our early republic, from the Williamsburg Bray School through the generations that followed, up through the early 20th century.”

Remarkably, the foundation was discovered nearly completely intact. Underneath the structure, archaeologists also found a cellar, inside which lay hundreds of years of artifacts, including fragments of slate pencils, jewelry, and handmade ceramics consistent with sites of enslavement and Indigenous communities.

The Bray School site was initially rediscovered in 2020. Since then, it has undergone extensive restoration. Its opening on Juneteenth—now a federal holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans—was a symbolic moment of remembrance and reflection.

As The New York Times reports, the unveiling offers the public a rare opportunity to engage directly with one of the earliest and most profound examples of Black education in American history.

The newly renovated building will function as a museum, opening visitors up to a sense of the lives of the students who once inhabited the building’s halls. It will also situate the school’s mission, which included a mandate to teach church doctrine to the students, including attempts to “convince enslaved students to accept their circumstances as divinely ordained,” a practice, which along with schools created to induce the conversion of Indigenous people to Christianity, has come under more scrutiny in recent years.

Dr. Maureen Elgersman Lee, director of the William & Mary Bray School Lab, discussed the tension between the students, a burgeoning American identity, and a city that wanted to pretend they didn’t exist with the outlet.

“The Bray School is happening around the same time that the fundamental ideas of American identity are being shaped and articulated. The existence of the school tells us that African Americans were a part of the fabric of Williamsburg despite the desire to not see them,” Elgersman Lee said. “The children grew up. They created lives within the system they lived in, whether free or enslaved. They entered this new period, this soon-to-be republic, and they were part of America’s story.”

Likewise, Janice Canaday, the African American community engagement manager for Colonial Williamsburg, who traces her lineage back to Elisha and Mary Jones, who attended the Bray School as free Black students in 1762, wonders about the lives of her ancestors and knew there was more to the story of early Colonial America than has been given to her community.

“I always knew there were pieces missing from the story of Blacks here in Williamsburg. I wonder what songs they sang. Did they go home, wherever home was, and share what they learned? Did they look out the window and somehow see hope?” Canaday asked.

According to Ron Hurst, the chief mission officer for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, who has been accused of whitewashing colonial history and being “woke,” his intention is to give a full accounting of history.

“We are going to tell a full story. We are going to tell you the good and the bad. We are not going to tell you what to think about it. That’s up to you.”

He continued, describing the mission of the Bray School in general, “It was not exactly an altruistic mission. The intent was to Christianize and particularly imbue the Anglican religion into children of color but at the same time reinforce what was perceived as their place in society. To me, one of the most interesting parts of this story is that once the tool of literacy is freed, you can’t put that genie back in the bottle.”