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The first Negro School began in 1879. From Monroe City News, September 1937)

The enumeration of children of school age in the Monroe City Special District reported March 29, 1879 in­cluded 197 white and 20 negro children. In the previous year there had been only eleven Negro children of school age.

This makes it necessary for us to have a Negro school in this district this,” the report read. The law prescribing that when there are 15 Negro children in the district of school age, a separate school shall be provided for them.”

   Green Thompson, a young Negro cripple of the community, had been encouraged to attend school away from Monroe City with the promise that when a Negro School was established he would be employed as the teacher.

The school opened in September, 1879 with fifteen children enrolled. The classes were taught in a small one-room building that stood on the Horace Cook lot in the Northeast part of town. Thompson continued to serve as the teacher of the school for more than a quarter of a century. However, from 1897 to 1899, Thompson was unable to teach and W. W. Wilson served in his stead.

The Negro school was later moved.