Inside a 1760 schoolhouse for Black children is a complicated history of slavery and resilience

Associated Press

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) — A museum in Virginia has nearly finished restoring the nation’s oldest surviving schoolhouse for Black children. The Bray School operated in Williamsburg from 1760 to 1774. Hundreds of mostly enslaved students learned to read through a curriculum that justified slavery. The former schoolhouse was identified on the campus of William & Mary University and recently was moved to Colonial Williamsburg, a living history museum. The museum is scheduled to dedicate the building on Friday and public tours are expected to begin next year. The museum plans to tell the school’s complicated story, which is one of slavery but also resilience.