From NKAA, Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (main entry)
African American Schools in Johnson County, KY
There is not a record of colored schools or Negro children in Johnson County, KY, prior to 1927 [sources: Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of Kentucky and Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of Kentucky]. And though the children are not listed in the education reports, in 1870, there were at least five Negro children between the ages of 5 and 18, and in 1920, there were fifteen [source: U.S. Federal Census]. The children may have attended school in a nearby county. It would be several more years before there was a report of one colored elementary school in Johnson County with 12 students and one teacher [source: Kentucky Public School Directory, 1927-1928, p.63] The school was located in Van Leer. The next report is of one colored student on p.51 of the Kentucky Public School Directory, 1934-35. A little more than two decades later, the Mayo State Vocational School in Paintsville is listed as having both white and colored students [source: Kentucky Public School Directory,1955-56, p.218]. The term "integration" is not used until the following year in reference to Mayo State Vocational School in Paintsville and Our Lady of the Mountains School [source: Kentucky Public School Directory, 1956-57, p.436]. The Mayo State Vocational School continued to be listed consistently as the integrated school in Johnson County.- Van Leer School