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Swayne College, founded as the Swayne School, was a school for African American students in Montgomery, Alabama. The school operated from 1868 to 1937. Built in 1865[1] and dedicated in 1869, it was named for General Wager Swayne[2] who led the Union Army in Alabama after the American Civil War, and later oversaw the Freedmen's Bureau in the state. He helped establish schools for African Americans in Alabama.[3]
The school was located at 632 Union Street, near Grove Street, on a site submitted by Elijah Cook and was run by the American Missionary Association.[4][5][6] George Stanley Pope was the school's first principal. Its first African American principal was Charles Duncan, a graduate of Fisk University.[2] Richard Bailey writes that the school was among the first to utilize the "bush school" strategy, where educators sent the school's best students into the community to teach other African-American children.[7] Tuition for Montgomery students was free, those from neighboring areas paid $1.[7]
Swayne College was demolished in 1948.[1] It was succeeded on the same site in 1949 by Booker T. Washington School, Montgomery's first high school for African Americans.[2][8] The community's schools later included Booker T. Washington Magnet High School,[9] a successor to George Washington Carver High School, and the Carver Creative and Performing Arts Center (CCPAC).
A historical marker commemorates the schools' site.[10][2][11]
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