About
This archive is dedicated to sharing the history of the Calfee Training School. It is an outgrowth of the Calfee Training School Museum which will be located at the future Calfee Community & Cultural Center in Pulaski, VA. 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. The Calfee Training School Museum will emphasize the quiet courage that so many players in the Calfee Training School’s history demonstrated through the years. This museum will tell these stories in such a way that visitors will have no choice but to walk away from the museum inspired to act courageously in the face of today’s challenges and injustices.