he good of the cause. While thus spending his energy as a sacrifice
for many he passed away respected by his pupils and honored by the
patrons of the school. His wife continued for a number of years
thereafter to render the system the same efficient service as the
popular primary teacher upon which the success of the work of the
higher grades largely depended, until she passed away in 1899.

The school then had the services of Mr. Ramsey and Mr. J. B. Cabell
who seemingly gave some impetus to the forward movement. Another epoch
in the history of the school was reached when W. T. McKinney became
principal in 1891. With the cooperation of the leading Negroes of the
city he succeeded in inducing the board of education to build on the
corner of Sixteenth Street and Eighth Avenue the Douglass High School,
which in its first form, prior to the making of certain additions,
consisted of a well-built six-room school costing several thousand
dollars. Mr. McKinney added the high school course and in the year
1893 graduated the first class of three. Following Mr. McKinney there
served the system efficiently as principals C. H. Barnett from 1890 to
1900, C. G. Woodson from 1900 to 1903, and R. P. Sims from 1903 to
1906. J. W. Scott, who succeeded Mr. Sims, is today principal of this
school, ranking throughout the State as one of its foremost educators.

Following along the line of Wayne County there soon appeared a school
at Ceredo and another at Fort Gay, just across the river from Louisa,
Kentucky. Under Mrs. Pogue, a woman of ambition and efficiency, this
school accomplished much good and exerted an influence throughout that
county. A number of students trained through the sixth, seventh, and
eighth grades later attended schools in other parts and made good
records because of the thorough training they first received. At Fort
Gay in this same county, however, no such desirable results were
achieved because of the small Negro population, the inability to
secure teachers for the small amount paid, and the tendency on the
part of local trustees there to change their teachers. Mrs. Cora
Brooks Smith, a graduate of the Ironton High School, who toiled there
a number of years, and Miss Susie Woodson, an alumnus of the Douglass
High School of Huntington, West Virginia, who also labored in the same
field, should be given at least passing mention in any sketch setting
forth the achievements in education among the Negroes in Wayne County.