Mount Meigs Colored Institute

The Mount Meigs Colored Institute (also Montgomery County Training School)[1] was a reform school founded by Cornelia Bowen for African-Americans in Mount Meigs, Alabama, an unincorporated community in Montgomery County, Alabama.

Besides the normal classes of instruction, the school taught farming, blacksmithing, and wheelwriting to boys, and sewing and cooking to girls.

[2] Students at the school also farmed the nine acres of land that were under cultivation and grew crops included cotton, sugar cane, corn, peas, and potatoes.

The board that ran the school consisted of twelve people: six whites, all from out of state, and six blacks, all local, including Booker T. Washington.

With their help additional acreage was acquired; the clubs were particularly appalled by the numbers of black young men in the area who ended up incarcerated in adult prisons, and supporting the school allowed young boys to stay out of prison—one such student was Satchel Paige.