Esmont's Community Education Efforts

Throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many community members contributed to efforts to educate African American students in Esmont. One such member is the school and community center's namesake, Benjamin Franklin Yancey. He was born in Howardsville around 1870, during the Reconstruction era. As he grew up, Yancey witnessed the establishment of restrictive Jim Crow laws. He attended the Hampton Institute, a historically black college, in Hampton, Virginia that is now known as Hampton University, where he studied to become a teacher. Yancey recognized the importance of quality education for African American students in Esmont and dedicated his adult life to this pursuit. He taught at the Esmont Colored School while working summers in hotels in Virginia and West Virginia to make ends meet. Yancey worked diligently to establish a high school for African American students in Esmont when the state and federal government were not investing in African American communities.

Yancey and other community leaders worked together to organize the Esmont School League, which had separate chapters for men and women. Between 1907 and 1916, the Esmont School League raised money to buy land on which to build a new school for African American students. Alongside the School League, community members and local churches purchased three acres of land. In 1916, the Esmont School for Colored Students opened at 7625 Porters Rd., where the current BF Yancey Community Center sits. Within twenty years, the community outgrew the original six room school building. A nearby home was converted into more classroom space for elementary-age students, while the Esmont School for Colored Students housed grades 5-11.