(Editor’s note: This column first ran in The Sunday Brew newsletter. If you are interested in articles like this, see them first by signing up for the newsletter.)
Maybe Hopkinsville can rally around one huge effort to save the old Crispus Attucks School on First Street before the historic building is too far gone for the work it needs to sustain a new life.
Notice that I’m saying this major task will need to be a communitywide Hopkinsville project — not something assigned to one group or a couple of interested parties.
That was the message I heard during a meeting Saturday morning at Pioneers Inc. for a few dozen people who came out to hear more about this ambitious Hail Mary vision to save the century-old structure that housed Attucks High School, the city’s only school for Black students from 1916 to 1967.
The school’s motto was “Do or Die for Attucks High.”
“There are good bones there … to build upon if we seek the right people to get it done,” said Teresa Moss, an Attucks Middle School alum who is among a core group of volunteers that hope to rally broad support for the effort.
“I know some of you are probably thinking, ‘Well, we’ve done that before, and that’s what happened some years ago when we received this or received that … and then a storm came and blew the roof off and other things [happened],’” Moss said, acknowledging past attempts to restore the school.
Between 1996 and the early 2000s, approximately $1.4 million in grants and donations were secured to revitalize Attucks. But after that money was spent for a new roof, asbestos and lead paint abatement and other expenses, the project lost steam and the building began to fall in disrepair. A storm a few years ago tore off a large portion of the roof. Vandalism also took a toll.
“We have to not look at what happened in the past, but look at now, look at the future, look at us and what we can do to help preserve this historic, monumental building — because it is worth restoring,” Moss said. “It’s gonna take money, it’s gonna take sweat equity, it’s gonna take all of us together … working together as team, and we can do it, we can.”
Leaders for the Men2Be mentoring program, which holds the deed to the property, are in the early stages of developing a plan to save the building, which includes a gymnasium addition from 1957.
Saturday’s meeting, titled Revitalizing Our Heritage,” was the first of three community sessions devoted to the project.
Community member are invited to the next two sessions as well, which are:
- Building Our Future, at 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 21, at Hopkinsville Community College’s Emerging Technologies Building.
- Empowering Our Youth, at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 21, at Christian County Middle School PAC.
Among several people who spoke at the first session, former Hopkinsville Mayor Wendell Lynch, who attended Attucks, stressed that the school building will need to eventually produce income to perpetuate its use.
“Grant money alone won’t do it,” said Lynch.
Organizers have discussed several possible uses for the building, including youth and senior programming, a community center, and space for small businesses.
Alissa Keller, executive director of the Museums of Historic Hopkinsville-Christian County, commented on the need for broad support.
“This is not a Black project,” she said. “It is a community project, and I think that is something the community will embrace, but it needs to be presented as such,” said Keller.
LaDessa Lewis, co-founder of Men2Be, is recruiting volunteers to join the effort. You can reach her at 270-348-4753.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
