Historical marker pays tribute to Milton school
The building may be gone, but the students who attended grade school at Milton Public School 196-C will never forget the education they received there.
It was 54 years ago when Jackie Brisco started at the two-room school house as a first-grade student.
“This was my humble beginning right here,” said Brisco, a former Cape Henlopen High School administrator.
It took a bit of effort, Brisco said, to hold back tears of appreciation when the site of her educational start was recognized with the unveiling of a state historical marker May 12.
“It's just a momentous day for me,” she said. “The caring and the loving that happened here, it was truly an extended family.”
Although Brisco only attended first grade at Milton Public School 196-C, it was enough time for her to feel a deep connection to the school, one of more than 80 schools throughout the state founded by industrialist and philanthropist Pierre S. du Pont, who aimed to provide quality education for underserved African-American students.
From 1922 to 1925, 33 schools for colored children – which is what the C stands for – were built in Sussex County. Unlike some of the other schools, 196-C had a jacketed stove for each classroom and a small kitchen. Hot lunches – the first meals were cheese sandwiches – were offered at the school beginning in the 1950s.
The Milton school was built in 1921, but it was destroyed in 2006 when its roof collapsed. When she found out her former school had been destroyed, the vacant, grassy lot brought a little sadness to Milton resident and Vice Mayor Esthelda Parker-Selby, who also attended 196-C.
“The education I got in that little school I would not trade,” she said during an interview when she was still working to gather resources needed to install a marker at the site. “It's amazing the teachers and lawyers and professionals that came out of that little school.”
Although the du Pont schools lacked many resources that could be found at white schools, such as new textbooks, Parker-Selby said she and her classmates were held to high standards.
Her teachers, Anna Henry White and Viola Piper, were prim and proper, just as they expected their students to be. Grammar was at the forefront of learning, and Parker-Selby said the education she received at the tiny schoolhouse prepared her for a lifelong career in education.
Parker-Selby spearheaded the efforts to have the site recognized by Delaware Public Archives, and local legislators funded the new sign. The late Noble Prettyman, a Cape Henlopen School District board member who died April 20 and whose family played a strong role in Sussex County's African-American history, also attended Milton Public School 196-C and held the installation of a historical marker close to his heart, Parker-Selby said. Parker-Selby asked for a moment of silence to remember Prettyman's contributions to the district during the May 12 event.
The marker, which can be found on Route 16 in Milton next to The Backyard restaurant, is one of more than 570 markers throughout the state that pay tribute to notable Delawareans, historical sites, buildings and houses of worship, said Delaware Public Archives Director Stephen Marz.
“Sometimes the building may not be there … but the memories are in your heart,” Marz said. “The memory of what happened here will forever be with everyone.”
