REMEMBERING THE OLD SCHOOL HOUSE FOR CHINESE IN RULEVILLE, MISSISSIPPI..........
- One room "shotgun" style house; formerly used as a servant’s quarter
- Potbelly stove for heating…….lighting with paper and chopped-up wooden apple crates for fuel
- Utility room in the back used to store coal and kindle
- No indoor plumbing
- Separate outhouse with one-seat hole on a rectangular wooden bench……no water or electricity……crack in the front door served as lighting…….Sears Roebuck catalogue pages used for necessary wiping
- House was provided to the Chinese for use as a school by landlord MRS. PALMER who had lived in her own house in the front
- Expenses for operating the school house and for teachers were believed to be provided by the Sunflower County School District
- Christian teachers were MS. TAYLOR of Drew, Mississippi, and MS. McBEE of Dockery, Mississippi, teaching 6-12 students in all grades
- No bus transportation were provided…….students from Ruleville walked to school…….students from Drew commuted with MS. TAYLOR by private vehicle
- Students furnished their own small school supplies
- No Chinese language were taught
- Chinese School operated from 1938 until Chinese were allowed to attend white Ruleville public schools in 1943
- Credit for admitting Chinese kids in white public schools in Ruleville goes to SENATOR JAMES O. EASTLAND of Doddsville, RAY W. JOE of Itta Bena and GEORGE CHU LIN of Greenville
- JEE JIM TOY was the first Chinese to attend Ruleville white public school in the early 1920’s but left amid community complaints
- WING LIN GEE was the first Chinese to graduate from Ruleville High School in 1949
- GEORGE JEE was the first Chinese to attend white public schools in Ruleville all 12 years and graduating in 1955
Foregoing information was provided from the memories of GEORGE JEE, formerly of Ruleville, Mississippi.........2012 photo credit: GEORGE JEE
