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Farming For A Better Future, page 238
3. HISTORICAL AFRICAN AMERICAN THEMES, PEOPLE, AND EVENTS
Coffee School (Rosenwald)*
The Coffee School was one of four Rosenwald schools in Lawrence County. Its location is unknown. Topographic maps from 1914 and 1916 do not cover much of Lawrence County beyond Red Bank. The first full set of maps for this county were created by the TVA in 1936. However, there is no school named Coffee on the 1936 maps. The school may have not been in use by 1936, or the school changed names.
The distribution of known historic schoolhouses covers the distribution of African American communities in Lawrence fairly well. There were only three other Rosenwald schools between Courtland and Town Creek: Hillsboro, Moulton, and Rocky Hill. Red Bank would be a likely place for another Rosenwald School, but there is nothing in the area named Coffee to give any indication of the school's location.
The school records held at the Lawrence County archives have census cards starting in 1930. There is no school named Coffee in the records. The Hillsboro Rosenwald School was built in 1921/1922, after the Tuskegee era, indicating that Hillsboro had more than one school.
Coffee School was a one-teacher, one-room schoolhouse. The records have no date for this school, but it was built under the instruction of the Tuskegee
Institute, making it mostly from about 1913-1915. Coffee School cost $850 to construct, with $300 from the African American community, $150 from public funds, and $400 from Rosenwald.
Ms. Pearl Jackson Green
Ms. Pearl Jackson Green grew up in Moulton, Lawrence County, Alabama. She was one of the women of color from Lawrence County to attend college, but she was not the first, nor, only success in her family. A life-long educator, Ms. Green has lived through the good and the bad of 20th century North Alabama. She is a member of the Echols family who would make a significant impact on the Moulton community of color.
Ms. Green was born in the 1930s to John Dyke Echols (1910 or 1912-1948) and Annie L. Love Echols (19131993). Her father died young, when she was only 14 years old. Fortunately, Mr. Echols was a Mason, a member of the Prince Hall Masons of the Huntsville Lodge. This fraternal order and its connections
(Left) Marriage Record for John Dyke Echols and Annie Love, Morgan County, Alabama, 1932 (Alabama, County Marriages, 1805-1967 via Ancestry.com)
provided Ms. Green with relationships that assisted her later in life. In an informal interview conducted at the Lawrence County Archives in early 2018, Ms. Green credited her father's membership to obtaining scholarship funds and employment at Alabama State College in Montgomery.
Mr. John Echols was the son of Price Echols (1886-1964) and Erise Johnson Echols (18891947). Price was one of two brothers that made their way from Danville, on the Morgan-Lawrence County line, to Moulton by 1920. Price and his brother, Ben A. Echols (18831953), both purchased land and farmed in southeast Moulton. Census records show that the brothers lived next door to each other from at least 1920 to 1940. The Echols brothers were not only landowners and farmers, but
(Left) Mr. John Dyke Echols (1912-1948), Son of Price and Erise Echols and Ms.
Pearl's Father (Ancestry.com, User akowe1) (Right) Ms. Annie Love Echols, Ms.
Pearl's Mother (Ancestry.com, User akowe1)
(Left) Mr. Price Echols (1886-1964), Ms. Pearl's Grandfather (Ancestry.com, User akowe1) (Right)
Ms. Ersie Johnson Echols (1889-1947), Ms. Pearl's Grandmother (Ancestry.com, User akowe1) - (4766)