8 I Today in Mississippi I June 2017
The Prentiss Institute was founded in 1907 to provide educational opportunities for African-Americans. The school closed in 1989 but its renovated Rosenwald Building, designated a Mississippi Landmark, hosts community events and the school’s biannual reunion. A school photo, below, dated 1950-51, shows students posing in front of the building. Photos courtesy of Prentiss Institute Alumni Board of Trustees
Historic Prentiss Institute to host reunion By Nancy Jo Maples Alumni from the Prentiss Institute in Jefferson Davis County are gearing up for this year’s reunion with a weekend of festivities that include a parade, ceremony and plenty of food. The reunion, set every two years on the school campus, will be June 16-17. Former students and their families attend. The reunion was begun 20 years ago and draws about 150 people each occurrence. “The school had an atmosphere where everybody knew everybody and knew their names, not just their faces,” alumnus Janice Armstrong said. Armstrong met her husband there while attending college 1972-1974, and their son met his wife during one of the school’s reunions. The reunion weekend will begin Friday night with a meet-and-greet on the school campus. The next morning reunion-goers will gather for breakfast at Williams’ Good Old Days Buffet restaurant in Prentiss and afterward will parade through the town, ending at the campus’ memorial site where the institute’s founders are buried. Wreaths will be placed ceremoniously on the graves.
Other activities include a business meeting, brunch and an evening banquet in the school’s Rosenwald Building. Prentiss Normal and Industrial Institute, as it was once known, is among the state’s
oldest educational facilities for African-Americans. Established in 1907, the school evolved from log cabin quarters and 40 acres to 24 buildings and 500 acres before closing.
Jonas Edward Johnson (1873-1953) and his wife Bertha LaBranche Johnson (1882-1971) founded the school during a time when African-Americans had limited educational opportunities. The Johnsons borrowed money to purchase the property and started the school in the log cabin where they lived. Initially it served only elementary students but within two years was licensed by the state as a private high school. Students paid for tuition, room and board with homegrown commodities such as eggs, chickens, vegetables and other farm-related goods. Beginning in the 1950s, Heifer International donated cows as a source of beef and milk for the school. The Prentiss Institute is one of Heifer International’s first ventures in the United States. In 1931 the facility increased its course offerings to also serve as a private junior college. In 1959 it began to function solely as a junior college. At its peak the school had an enrollment of 700 students and 44 faculty members. However, student enrollment dropped, funding waned and the school closed in 1989. The Rosenwald Building was constructed in 1926