Hale Junior High School

The man the school honors started with almost nothing. William J. Hale, born in Marion County in 1874, went to work young, saved enough in Dayton to enroll at biracial Maryville College, then taught and became principal of Chattanooga's East First Street Grammar School. When Tennessee authorized a normal school for Black students, he led a drive to raise $71,000 for a Chattanooga site, though Nashville won it. He was named head of the new school anyway, handpicked thirteen faculty members, and led Tennessee A&I until he retired in August 1943.

What the plaque says

Hale Junior High School Hale School, a Rosenwald School, was established in 1927. It was named for Dr. William J. Hale, an African-American educator and the first president of Tennessee State University. Funding for the school's construction was provided by the African-American community, public, and Rosenwald funds. Hale consisted of grades one through nine and prepared African Americans with the necessary academic skills that aided them in excelling in higher education and professional careers. In 1967, the Huntingdon Special School District purchased Haled, merged it with Huntingdon's all-white school, and formed the Huntingdon Primary School.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Patsy Cline Crash Site Memorial — 15 mi
  An engraved rock off Mt. Carmel Road near Camden marking where a small plane carrying Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins went down on March 5, 1963.
• Natchez Trace State Park — 22 mi
  A New Deal state park built on worn-out West Tennessee farmland, where the Fairfield Gullies show what erosion did and kudzu was planted to stop it.
• Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge — 28 mi
  A 51,000-acre refuge along Kentucky Lake and the Tennessee River, created in 1945 for migratory birds, with a visitor center in Springville and a drowned Archaic site nearby.
• Mousetail Landing State Park — 34 mi
  A Perry County state park on the Tennessee River where a leather-shipping landing once stood, with ruins of its pier and blacksmith shop, a historic landing trail and quiet water trails.

More markers nearby

• Isaac R. Hawkins — 2.5 mi
• Site of B-17 Crash — 7.0 mi
• Governor Alvin Hawkins — 10 mi
• Bethel College — 10 mi