History of the Calfee Training School
The institution that came to be known as the Calfee Training School first opened its doors in southwest Virginia as a school for African American children in 1894. After the original building burned down, the current facility was built by the Public Works Administration in 1939 and continued to be used as a school for African American children until the Pulaski County Public School system fully desegregated in 1966.
Despite being severely underfunded and hindered by segregationist policies, the Calfee Training School left a legacy that has now spanned multiple generations. Often described as “a home away from home,” Calfee Training School had a tight knit community and strict academic policies. Several of the Calfee alumni carry the Calfee legacy by contributing to the growth of the community by becoming role models, teachers, principals, ministers, business owners, policy makers, and leaders.
Additionally, the school holds a significant but little-known place in US history. A young man by the name of Chauncey Depew Harmon, a former student, teacher, and principal of the Calfee Training School agreed to serve as a plaintiff in the first legal effort for equalization of facilities and faculty pay in Virginia. Thurgood Marshall, Spottswood Robinson, Oliver Hill and other prominent attorneys were involved in the lawsuit that grew out of this effort. Corbin et al. v. County School Board of Pulaski County Va (1949) ended up being one of six successful cases led by the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund that paved the way for the groundbreaking Brown vs. Board of Education (1954).
The tenacity of Chauncey Depew Harmon, Willis Gravely, Dr. Percy Corbin, and other community leaders echo the resiliency woven into the fabric of Pulaski County by the Calfee Training School.
History of the Calfee Center
In 2018, a group of Calfee Training School alumni and other local citizens partnered with the Town of Pulaski, the YMCA of Pulaski County, and the Pulaski County Department of Social Services to establish the Calfee Training School Project. The historic Calfee Training School has been sitting empty for 10 years. Despite operating for almost a century, the School’s existence and its significance to the history of Pulaski are largely unknown outside the local African American community.
Since then, a community visioning process that engaged over 250 local residents and a democratic selection process for a founding Board of Directors established not only the non-profit organization, but also a robust, community driven vision for a Calfee Center that:
Honors the rich history of Calfee Training School and increases awareness of local African American history by establishing and operating a museum in the facility and other interpretive elements throughout the building and grounds;
Provides spaces for multi-generational social, educational and cultural programming to families and individuals in the New River Valley and visitors to our region;
Operates the Chauncey and Lucy Harmon Learning Center which will provide much needed early childhood education opportunities in Pulaski County’s childcare desert;
Strengthens the local food economy and food security through operating the Lena Huckstep Community Kitchen; and
Connects community leaders, organizations, and families to more effectively work across organizational, racial, generational, and class lines.
Provides Pulaski County residents with basic and advanced digital literacy and workforce development skills and internet access through the Dorothy DeBerry Venable Digital Learning Lab;
Serves as a community resource center by offering office space to social service and mental health organizations as well as small businesses; and
Provides technologically equipped multipurpose spaces for a range of social, cultural, and professional gatherings.
