Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1963-08-05
BY WALTER WURFEL
Star staff Writer

For four years the only con-
tribution that Southside Vir-
ginia's Prince Edward County
has made toward the education
Of its Negro children is q
School Zone. Slow" sign.
While the county's battle
against school migration dragS
on in the courts, most Of its
1900 white children attend the
private Prince Edward Acad-
envy"
But, since the public schools
were closed in 1859, more than
half Of the 1,700 Negro children
in the county have had no
schooling.
Only the interest Of outside
groups from as far away as
New York and Boston has kept
all Of the Negro children from
growing up illiterate.
Teachers From New York
This summer 10 students
from Queens College. New York,
have Joined with about 10 New
York public school teachers to
bring basic reading and writing
skills to at least some Of the
deprived children. This is the
third summer program of out
side help. and the largest. Be-
tween 470 and 500 Negro youths
are attending classes in Negro
churches throughout the
county.
Two of these churches flank
the 100 block of South Main
Street in Farmville, a town Of
1890 that is the county seat
and shopping center for neigh
boring farm counties.
Between the churches, in the
center Of the street, stands the
battered school zone sign, left
over from the days when the
county operated public schools.
On the west side Of the
street about so children, some
as old as 10 years are being
taught to read by volunteers
with Brooklyn, Bronx and
Manhattan accents. In a fleet
ing sort of way the white and
Negro outsiders have brought
their own indignation to Vir-
ginia's main bastions Of segre-
CATION.
Books Donated to Library
In a library of donated books
on the dimly-lit ground floor
Of the AME Zion church, Mrs.
Carole Theil. %, teaches a class
Of 10. Her group of 6-to-10 year
olds and another of 10 children
share the 15-by-30-foot room.
Only a portable blackboard
partially separates the two
classes.
The children. small for their
age, crowd together on nom
descript furniture, two to a
chair.
One Of the eager pupils. 10
year-old Essie, beams with de-
light as Mrs. Theil tells her she
was right when she identified
o Nv" on the blackboard as the
letter that sounds like IOWA"
After three weeks she and
many Of her classmates can
identify simple words like
"blue" and cat" and funny"
Mrs. Theil teaches the first
grade at Public School l48 in
Brooklyn during the regular
school year.
Eager 10 Learn
"It's gratifying but disturb
ing to meet with a group Of
kids like this who are so eager
and so anxious TO learn" she
says, gratifying that they
are so attentive and disturbing
that they should ever have
been put in this situation"
Across Main street In the
First Baptist Church buzzing
flies and traffic noice pass
freely through the open win
dows Of the sanctuary, where
other 10 to l2-year-old first
graders are going to school.
In the rural community OF
Prospect. 10 miles away, Queens
College student Mike Wenger
helps teach 1913 pupils in the
st. James AME Zion church.
Mr.. Wenger, 81. a political
science major from Woodmere,
N. Y, teaches the most ad-
vanced group. His helper is a
1o-year-old Negro girl from
Farmville, who spent two years
In a Boston public school under