The Historical Society of Avon ParkAVON PARK, FL · EST. 1886
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The 1950 census records the faculty, staff, and bus driver of Hopewell School

Because official administrative records for segregated Black schools in Florida were rarely preserved in municipal archives, the daily staffing of Hopewell School during the mid-twentieth century has largely depended on oral recollections. In the April 1950 federal population census, Enumeration District 28-8 (Avon Park, Commissioner’s District 2) captured a complete snapshot of the Black public school workforce, enumerating eleven educators and support workers residing in the neighborhood.[census-1950-ed-28-8]

The 1950 school workforce

According to the federal census schedules, the eleven public school employees lived clustered together within the Black residential community east of the railroad line:[census-1950-ed-28-8]

Name Age Birthplace Schedule Location Role on Schedule
Howard L. Warner 33 Georgia Sheet 76, line 11 Elementary Principal, Public School
Dorothy W. Warner 29 Georgia Sheet 76, line 12 Elementary Teacher, Public School
Alberta Jones 56 North Carolina Sheet 19, Household 198 (South Verona Ave.) Elementary Teacher, City School
Julia Williams 46 Oklahoma Sheet 22 (Fairfield Ave.) Elementary School Teacher, City School
Freddie Gibson 25 — Sheet 13, Household 136 (Fairfield Ave.) Elementary School Teacher, City School
Eva Butler 24 Florida Sheet 13, Household 136 (Fairfield Ave.) Elementary School Teacher, City School
Blond E. Austin 22 Florida Sheet 15, line 25, Household 161 (Castle St.) Third Grade Teacher, Elementary City School
Mary E. Jones 49 South Carolina Sheet 11 Pastry Cook, City School
William Smith 27 Florida Sheet 33, Household 373 (Castle St.) Cook, City School
Que Jones 55 Alabama Sheet 9 Janitor, City School
Henry Austin 56 Florida Sheet 75, line 7, Household 302 School Bus Driver, City School

Principalship, household context, and pupil transportation

Howard L. Warner is the only identified principal between James Ellerbe (recorded in the Atlanta Daily World in April 1941)[adw-1941-04-05] and Ernest E. Sims, who directed Hopewell through its final years before closure in 1968.[newssun-hopewell-2026] Warner and his wife Dorothy lodged in a rooming house operated by John Williams.

On Sheet 15, line 25 (Household 161, on Castle Street), third-grade teacher Blond E. Austin (age 22 and unmarried) was enumerated as the great-niece of sandwich-shop manager Alex Austin (53) and his wife Bertha Austin (48), five doors down from Moses McRae’s household.[census-1950-ed-28-8] Because line 25 was a census sample line, the schedule also recorded her educational attainment and earnings: she had completed four years of college (S16) and earned $1,800 across 32 weeks of teaching in 1949.[census-1950-ed-28-8]

On supplemental Sheet 75, lines 7–8 (Household 302), Henry Austin, age 56, was enumerated with his wife Lourenia Austin, age 53, working 40 hours per week as a public school bus driver (“School bus Driver, City School”).[census-1950-ed-28-8] His enumeration as a dedicated public school bus driver in 1950 shows that the county provided pupil transportation for Black students during the segregated era, making the absence of county busing at Hopewell’s 1968 desegregation closing, when a parent had to transport displaced students across town by truck, a sharp reversal in local practice.[newssun-hopewell-2026]

References

Where this comes from

Evidence
single-source — One source. Treat as reported, not established.
Review
unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.
Rights
society

Sources

  1. United States Bureau of the Census, 1950 Census population schedules, Florida, Highlands County, enumeration district 28-8, Avon Park city (1950)
  2. Margaret Graham, Highlands News-Sun, Hopewell Elementary School educators encouraged Black students to excel (2026)
  3. Atlanta Daily World (Atlanta, Ga.), Obituary notice naming James Ellerbe, principal of the high school at Avon Park, Atlanta Daily World, 5 April 1941, page 3 (1941)

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