Williamsburg Restores America’s Oldest Black Schoolhouse, Uncovering a Legacy of Education and Resilience
NNPA - Colonial Williamsburg is nearing completion on the restoration of the Williamsburg Bray School, the oldest surviving schoolhouse for Black children in America. Founded in 1760 by the Associates of Dr. Bray, a British Anglican charity, the school was established to teach enslaved and free Black children to read, albeit through a curriculum that promoted religious submission to slavery. Yet, for the hundreds of students who passed through its