Phyllis Wacker’s Free School Records, MM-013

Dr. Phyllis Wacker moved to Farmville around 1962 with her husband and three children. In 1963, she heard from a friend that the Federal Government along with state and local officials were trying to open a privately funded free school in Prince Edward County to reopen schools in Prince Edward since their closing in 1959. The same friend informed Dr. Wacker that the school would need a licensed guidance counselor to be certified. Dr. Wacker, a licensed guidance counselor, took an interview in August with the Free Schools administrators, Billy Baldwin, the Business Manager and Dr. Neil Sullivan, the Superintendent. She accepted the position immediately and served as the schools Guidance Counselor for the one year of their existence. After serving as the Guidance Counselor for the Free Schools Phyllis would go on to earn a Doctorate and became a professor of Psychology at Longwood University.

The Prince Edward County Free School Association was official announced at a press conference on August 14, 1963. Funded privately the Association was developed to help alleviate the school situation in Prince Edward County. Schools in the County were closed in 1959 when the county school board and supervisors chose not to fund public schools to avoid an integration order from the Supreme Court. While white children in Prince Edward County were able to attend a private school funded by tuition grants, African American children either, left home to attend school in other counties and states, or went without a formal education. The Associations first order of business was to hire Dr. Neil Sullivan as Superintendent of Schools. Dr. Sullivan was an educational innovator and had helped establish nongraded school systems in New England. The nongraded school system allowed students to advance at their own pace rather than being placed in grades simply by age. The Free Schools used this nongraded system as well as team teaching to help aid students who had been deprived an education for so long. In addition, the free schools offered free lunches, clothes and medical care to students all to help combat attention and attendance issues.

This collection of materials was donated by Phyllis Wacker in May of 2022 to the Moton Museum.

This collection includes records of the work Phyllis Wacker did as Guidance Counselor of the Free Schools, including reports and data on pupils at the Free School. In addition, the collection includes bulletins and memos sent by Neil Sullivan and James B. Cooley President of the High School, as well as a few others. In addition, the collection includes an introduction to the Free School written by Dr. Sullivan, the schools Statement of philosophy, and handbook for teachers.

In Spring of 2022 Dr. Wacker participated in the Moton Magazine project and shared her story with Longwood University Students, you can find the article in the A Little Way Down the Road: Stories from Prince Edward County, Virginia magazine on pg. 50.