Book Description

Proud Legacy chronicles the story of a rarely-discussed chapter of African American history, in the voices of those Black men and women who experienced it. Beginning with the arrival of it's first African American residents, this book traces the rise of Malvern, Arkansas' African American community and it's quest to overcome the challenges of Jim Crow and to build a school system for the region's Black children. Focusing on the rise of Malvern's segregation-era "colored" school system, from a single primary school to a highly-regarded primary, middle, and secondary school program, Proud Legacy explores the unique circumstances that led to the creation of a thriving and effective African American education system in the midst of the segregated South. Sometimes exuberant, sometimes heart-breaking, this oral history-based volume documents a Black community's pride in the school system that it built, and their grief upon it's eventual closure.