Group celebrates fundraising success for historic Neosho Colored School

May 6—NEOSHO, Mo. — Lana Henry was dressed in bright colors and a flowing skirt for Saturday's buffalo soldiers presentation at Crowder College.

"I'm not always decked out this fancy, but I thought the news I'm about to share with you is so bright, it is so joyful," said Henry, Carver Birthplace Association president and a former chief ranger at George Washington Carver National Monument. "See how this skirt kind of moves? This means we are about to move forward, so much forward."

Henry said the association had been awarded several more grants to support restoration of the Neosho Colored School in Neosho since last fall, when it received $70,000 from the National Trust for Historic Preservation's African-American Cultural Heritage Action.

Other grants:

—$25,080 from the Missouri State Historic Preservation Office.

—$239,391 from the African-American Civil Rights Grant Program, which is administered by the National Park Service.

Another substantial grant is coming, she said, adding that she hoped to release more details soon.

"The projected estimate to finish the rehabilitation of that schoolhouse is $360,893.64," Henry said. "With what I've shared with you and the next award — when we break that news — we will be basically fully funded to move forward and get that baby completed."

Carver was born a slave in 1865 near Diamond and was about 10 years old when he walked the 8 miles from the home of Moses and Susan Carver to Neosho to begin his formal schooling

The 1872 Neosho Colored School, 639 Young St., represents the beginning of Carver's formal education, putting him on a path that would see him become of the of 20th century's leading agricultural scientists.

The building in Neosho served as a school until 1891 and then was sold to become a private home. In 2004, Arvest Bank donated the property to the Carver Birthplace Association.

The home on the lot at that time was thought to have replaced the 1872 schoolhouse, but an architect from the National Park Service surveyed it and confirmed the original schoolhouse was buried inside that structure and was about 70% intact.