8 minute read
Mr. Success
MTSU graduate, retired leader, and Honors board member Vincent Windrow stewards a local preservation effort
By Nancy DeGennaro and Drew Ruble
If there’s one word that comes to mind when talking about MTSU alum and former top administrator Vincent Windrow, that word is “success.”
As an MTSU student, Windrow co-founded a campus chapter of the NAACP. He then helped lead the effort to remove a 600-pound medallion from Keathley University Center engraved with a likeness of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate general. He did so by meeting with then-MTSU President Sam Ingram and asking him to remove the plaque. If he didn’t, Windrow and others promised to lead a protest on MLK Day—and invite other NAACP chapters. The medallion was still there when campus emptied at Christmas break. But when January rolled around, it was gone.
As a young graduate, Windrow joined Zycron, then just a year-old workforce solutions company, as its vice president. For more than 12 years, he helped build the company from its humble beginnings as a $10,000 company into a business that reached more than $40 million in annual revenue; it was sold to a publicly traded company.
Windrow then returned to MTSU as director of the former Intercultural and Diversity Affairs office. He later became associate vice provost for student success, leading the newly launched Quest for Student Success. Spearheaded by MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee, the Quest radically rethought the University’s approach to student attrition. While MTSU has always targeted at-risk populations for support, the new Student Success initiative boosted every student’s chance to succeed.
To achieve it, Windrow and team overhauled student advising, developed fresh options for academic help, and redesigned courses that were traditional stumbling blocks to graduation. At the same time, it used predictive analytics—an approach more commonly associated with health care than higher education—to help identify students at statistical risk of attrition even if they don’t fit into traditionally “at-risk” populations. Armed with this knowledge, faculty and advisors could watch them to spot any problems early and get them back on track.
The results of the Quest have been dramatic. In 2017, MTSU was one of just 45 American universities invited to join Re-Imagining the First Year, an initiative sponsored by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to help other institutions improve their student success too.
Windrow retired from MTSU in May 2022. Today, he is an executive with Cornucopia Consulting Group, working with clients in the areas of higher education; K–12 education; diversity, equity and inclusion; mental health awareness; and leadership development.
But Windrow remains connected to his alma mater. He’s a member of the MTSU Honors College Board of Visitors. And he is also working closely with MTSU’s Center for Historic Preservation (CHP) to help preserve one of the state’s only remaining Black school buildings constructed during segregation.
A NEW SUCCESS STORY
Tucked behind a historic church on Old Nashville Highway near the Stones River National Battlefield and National Cemetery is an aging concrete block building that once served a bustling hub of activity. The Cemetery School has roots dating back to the late 1800s. The school served the Cemetery Community that grew out of the post-Civil War period. The community was founded by formerly enslaved families who worked burying Union soldiers at the neighboring graveyard that is now part of the U.S. National Park System.
Windrow and the Friends of Cemetery School are working to preserve it. They are doing so through a collaboration with MTSU’s famous Center for Historic Preservation.
“There so few surviving examples of segregated schools built in the rural South. At one time there were thousands of them. Rutherford County has one of the best-conditioned Black schools we have left. It’s remarkable,” said Carroll Van West, CHP director and the Tennessee state historian.
After integration happened in the 1960s, the Cemetery School was closed, and students were sent elsewhere. Queen Washington and her sister-in-law Bertha Washington, who lived by the school, purchased the property and began using the building as a gathering place for the Cemetery Community. Eventually, it became a storage facility for the family.
“If they hadn’t bought it, they would have torn it down and the story would have been lost. Now we get to tell the story,” said Windrow, his eyes brightening as he talked about the history of the school that his mother once attended. “And that’s powerful.”
Two-time MTSU alumna Leonora “Miss Boe” Washington, Windrow’s cousin who lived in one of the houses by the old school, wanted to restore the school she attended as a child. She sought help from West.
“Boe Washington made it her mission to save the school,” West said. “She first showed it to me 20 years ago, and she said, ‘You can help me preserve the school.’ ”
West said several MTSU classes over 18 months “did a deep dive” on the school and community, which included doing interviews with former students and poring through documents.
Since then, interpretive panels and an exhibit plan have been developed for the restoration project.
Windrow, who also pastors Olive Branch Church in Murfreesboro and Nashville, said they discovered the Cemetery School building that stands today was constructed in 1941 by the National Youth Administration, a New Deal program started by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to help unemployed young people find jobs and teach them skills during the Great Depression.
This is a story of resilience, a story of hope.
The Cemetery School construction was based on plans for a Rosenwald School—schools built in the early 1900s for Black children in underfunded areas of the South. The building program was developed through a partnership between Julius Rosenwald, part-owner and president of the iconic Sears & Roebuck Company, and legendary Black philanthropist and educator Booker T. Washington, founder of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.
“They were effective, efficient, and cheap to build,” West said. “A Rosenwald School had two rooms, a partition between them, and a stage at the end of a larger classroom.”
When “Miss Boe” died in 2019, Windrow took over caretaking duties. And that’s when the plans for restoration got closer to a reality. The next step was “cleaning house.”
“We probably cleared about 85% of it out. There was a pool table in there. Old tires in there, mattresses. There’s still a wood-burning stove in there,” Windrow said, looking around at the dust-covered collection of items that remained.
Inside the school, there’s a musty smell of history. Muted sunlight streaming through the tall windows illuminates the dust hanging in the air. Tiles are cracked and some parts missing. There’s no electricity or operational plumbing.
But years ago, Washington made sure the roof was repaired to keep out rain to protect the interior of the structure. All things considered, wear and tear from 80 years of history has not damaged the structural integrity.
Remnants of the old school remain: 1940s-era desks with initials carved into the wood, coal-burning stoves, dozens of ragged fabric-covered books with yellowed pages, an art deco antique radio, and a well-worn piano. Outside there’s a dried-up water fountain connected to a well.
Those things will be incorporated into the restoration plans for a museum and community center.
Plans for restoration got closer to a reality.
“This side over here,” said Windrow, with his long arms pointing to the right, “will be the museum showcasing the history of Cemetery School and the Cemetery Community. I have all of Boe Washington’s report cards. We have the desks. We’ll have displays and signs telling the history and who taught here.”
The other side will be a gathering place and space for programming. Eventually they hope to have a park-like setting outside with pavilions.
The nonprofit Friends of Cemetery School group is working in concert with the battlefield, and there are grants available to help with paying for the restoration and maintenance.
The state of Tennessee already approved $250,000 of grants in the 2025–26 budget for the project.
“We’ve submitted an application for a National Trust for Historic Preservation grant. We’ve received a grant from the Pi Gamma Gamma Foundation and donations from individuals,” Windrow said. “We are also looking to partner with construction firms who’d be willing to sponsor the electrical work, the roof repair, and the plumbing needs. . . . We’re trying to do a holistic rebirth and renovation.”
Plans are to open the museum in the summer of 2026.
“This is a story of resilience, a story of hope. This was their educational experience, and so they had to do what they had to do with what they had,” said Windrow, referencing the modest accommodations. “And so that’s using ingenuity. These teachers gave their lives to these students. So I am so excited about it.”
Windrow’s excitement and involvement seem likely to lead to a familiar outcome: resounding success.
Now we get to tell the story. And that's powerful.
HOW TO HELP
If you’re interested in helping with restoration efforts for the Cemetery School, email Windrow at vincent.windrow@mtsu.edu or call 615-981-0080.
You can also donate funds to the nonprofit Friends of Cemetery School on Cash App at $FOCSgive.
