'Secret Quilters' program will be held Thursday | Group gives educational performances around the country

Genell Jackson of Naples, Texas, is dressed in her performance costume as a member of the Pleasant Hill Quilters who will present their program "Secret Quilters — Secret Code Quilts of the Underground Railroad" on Thursday in Pleasant Hill.
Genell Jackson of Naples, Texas, is dressed in her performance costume as a member of the Pleasant Hill Quilters who will present their program "Secret Quilters — Secret Code Quilts of the Underground Railroad" on Thursday in Pleasant Hill.

The Rosenwald School at Pleasant Hill continues to exert an influence upon Cass County and Northeast Texas, particularly because it is the home of the Pleasant Hill Quilters.

The eight to 10 ladies who make up the quilting group not only quilt here but also perform a Civil War history lesson called "The Secret Quilters - Secret Code Quilts of the Underground Railroad."

They have presented this drama with a quilt they've made during the year, songs they sing and story they tell in small towns and cities as large as Chicago and Washington, D.C. This year they are scheduled to tell it 19 more times.

The story is of slaves escaping from the South to the North in Civil War days who would see the quilts hanging outside or on porches - and in its 10 panels discern secret messages about how to proceed or where to find safe houses and trustworthy people.

The quilters will start their season 11. a.m. Thursday with a performance at the Pleasant Hill School for the Shakespeare Club of Mount Vernon, Texas.

Pleasant Hill is one of the oldest African American communities in Texas. Its lineage traces back to the Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, organized in 1843, when several church members donated the land and a church and school were built.

In 1925, the school received historical significance when it became part of the Julius Rosenwald School Building program established to improve education for African Americans in the rural South.

The school cost $3,450 with the Rosenwald Fund matching the $700 contribution of African American citizens. It was built according to the Rosenwald plan 20-A, which featured an industrial room in the center and two classrooms separated by a movable partition. It was built from materials salvaged from the previous school building plus new materials.

The one-story, side-gable schoolhouse features a symmetrical front with a central projecting gable flanked by two front doors. On the inside, two large windows allow a great amount of light to enter.

The outside playground included a swing set, merry-go-round and slide, which were added in the years of the Great Depression, and a concrete storm shelter built in the 1950s.

The school opened with about 70 students and two teachers, Della Lindsay Warren and Professor R. S. Guise. Approximately 1,200 students attended school up to the eighth grade. Those who wished to continue went on to high school at Fairview School near Linden.

In 1964, with attendance around 26, the school closed and the students transferred to Linden.

Some 23 Rosenwald Schools were built in Cass County, but today the Pleasant Hill School, as restored in 2009 and now a community center, is the only one remaining.

The site was recorded as a historical landmark in 2010 and is now property of the state of Texas.

"This means damage to the property could be a felony," said one member of the Pleasant Hill community as a precautionary note.

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