Nassau Colored School at Belltown in 1922

Delaware’s schools were very much segregated in 1922 when this photograph was made for Delaware’s Board of Education. One- and two-room school houses like this one dotted the countryside, serving population clusters wherever they sprouted. Schools were categorized as either white or colored with the colored designation applying to a variety of nonwhite populations.

The building shown here was reportedly one of 80 schools for colored students - primarily African Americans - built throughout Delaware in the 1920s with financing from industrialist and philanthropist Pierre S. du Pont, who was determined to improve public education in Delaware. Of those 80 schools, 33 were located in Sussex County. This two-room structure replaced a previous one-room schoolhouse in Belltown.