Our Story

For generations, African Americans have carried a deep and determined desire to know, preserve, and tell their own history—a history too often ignored, overlooked, or erased despite the enormous contributions African Americans have made to American society and world civilization. Even through the hardships of enslavement and the long shadow of Jim Crow segregation, that commitment to memory, education, and progress endured.

In Brownsville and across Haywood County, that commitment took shape through a network of schools that educated generations of African American children from the mid-1880s until integration in 1970. Among the most important of these institutions were Brownsville Colored Normal School, Dunbar School, Haywood County Training School, and Carver High School.

In the early years, many of these schools were located in churches scattered throughout the county’s farming and sharecropping communities. Teachers, ministers, parents, and neighbors worked together to ensure that children received an education, often under difficult circumstances but always with a shared belief that education was the path to opportunity, dignity, and progress.

For decades, alumni carried with them the memories of these schools and the profound impact they had on their lives. That shared history—and the determination to preserve it—eventually led to the creation of the Dunbar Carver Museum.

The museum officially opened during the Dunbar–Haywood County Training–Carver High School Alumni Association’s Biennial Super Saturday Celebration over the Labor Day weekend in September 2007. What began as a dream among alumni and community leaders quickly became a living center for preserving the history of African American education, culture, and community life in Haywood County.

Today, the Dunbar Carver Museum continues to grow as photographs, documents, artifacts, and personal stories are entrusted to its care. The museum is expanding its collections, strengthening its exhibits, and using modern museum practices and digital technologies to make this history accessible to future generations. Special emphasis is being placed on developing educational materials for students in grades 1 through 12 so that young people can better understand the struggles, achievements, and resilience of those who came before them.

At a time when the teaching of African American history is being reduced or challenged in some public-school systems, the work of preserving and sharing this history has taken on renewed importance. The mission of the Dunbar Carver Museum reflects a broader truth expressed in 1955 by historian Luther Caesar Keith:

“History is not the story of men and women of one race or color while neglecting or omitting those of another. It is not the glorification of a single people to the exclusion of others, but the story of all peoples and their contributions to world civilization.”

The Dunbar Carver Museum stands as a testament to that belief—ensuring that the stories of the students, teachers, families, and communities who shaped this history will be remembered, preserved, and shared for generations to come.