“Missouri’s Oldest One-Room African American Schoolhouse Gets A New Chance At Life”

AUTHOR: Marissanne Lewis-Thompson
DATE: August 30, 2021

Doris Frazier always knew the value of education.

Her mother was a teacher. Her father pushed her and her siblings to go to college.

She followed in her mother’s footsteps, becoming a substitute teacher at African School #4 in the 1950s. The small, one-room schoolhouse was exclusively for African American children in the Chesterfield area.

“I remember walking up these little steps and through the front door, and a little desk up front, you know, waiting for the kids to come,” 90-year-old Frazier recalled. “And I’d have the roll call of course as to who was there.”