C. G. White Is Wanted

At the County Commissioner's meeting on Monday night, a large group from Powellsville came to ask during public comments for preferential treatment in the County's disposition of the C. G. White School in Powellsville that is being closed.

The heart of their arguments appeared based on the premise that C.G. White was an icon in the black community of Bertie County and that the school was the first African-American school in the county. Therefore they feel some effort should be undertaken to see that an African-American organization controlled the school . . . . so they could use if for a cultural center, resource center or other purpose to serve the African-American community.




The following are some of the people who spoke on behalf of assuring that C.G. White was not sold to the highest bidder, but instead steered through some process to this losely affiliated group.



J.C. Watford


Estellle Simonds


Lucille Bazemore


Gloria Riddick Mizelle (Great Grandaughter of C.G. White)


Commissioner Norman Cherry


Cordia Hall


Mabel Taylor

I have already commented before that I believe that we should maximize our revenue from this school, as well as the J.P. Law and Askewville schools so that we can repair some of the serious maintenance needs in our current high school. Our high school was intentionally under maintained in recent years in the belief that it would be replaced, but at this point there is no realistic chance of that happening for at least a decade . . . and maybe two. In fact unless Bertie County starts to grow, there may never be enough bond funds to replace the current school The current students badly need the money that could be gained from disposal of the C.G. White school at the highest price possible to allow for the serious maintenance backlog to be cleared up.

However as long as the price differential is not too great, there is a great deal of logic to assuring the cultural legacy of C. G. White is retained for the future of our county. Hopefully a solution can be found that helps with the historical legacy concerns and still takes care of our children who are attending school. They deserve for any money derived from selling this valuable asset that was built with money intended for public education to be used to educate children as its primary use.