Our Story, This Place tells the fascinating history of the almost century-old Mars Hill Anderson Rosenwald School in the Long Ridge Community of Mars Hill, North Carolina. One of 500+ “Rosenwald Schools” in North Carolina 9and 5,000 across the South), it is one of the few buildings left standing in the state, and the only one owned by a local school board: the Madison County Board of Education.
Restored through the efforts of several dozen members of the historic Black Long Ridge community and many other friends, the school has been reimagined as both a historic site and an interactive, educational museum. It is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places.
This book provides comprehensive information about Black education in the rural South from after the Civil War through the time of desegregation, sharing personal reminiscences by alumni and descendants of the many education leaders dating back more than a century. It is a fascinating story, capturing what might otherwise be a lost history of a people and a place that shaped the destiny of thousands in western North Carolina.