Mount Meigs Campus

Coordinates: 32°21′45″N 86°6′6″W / 32.36250°N 86.10167°W / 32.36250; -86.10167

Mount Meigs Campus Administration Building (under renovation as of March 2011)

The Mount Meigs Campus is a juvenile corrections facility of the Alabama Department of Youth Services located in Mount Meigs, unincorporated Montgomery County; the campus serves as the agency's administrative headquarters.[1][2] The 780-acre (320 ha) campus, which can house 264 boys, is next to Interstate 85 North and about 15 miles (24 km) east of Downtown Montgomery.[1]

History

Front entrance to Mount Meigs Campus

In 1888, Cornelia Bowen was recommended by Booker T. Washington to establish a school for boys and girls in Mount Meigs area. Cornelia Bowen graduated from the Tuskegee Institute in 1885, a member of the first graduating class, and led the Mount Meigs Institute until 1911.

In 1911, the school became the Alabama Reform School for Juvenile Negro Law-Breakers. The name was changed to the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children in 1947, and to the Alabama Industrial School in 1970.[3][4][5]

On March 27, 1915, the Hampton Institute Camera Club, known for its illustrations of Paul Laurence Dunbar's poetry, staged a photo sale for the benefit of the Mt. Meigs school. The sale raised funds for four five-dollar scholarships for day students. A Hampton graduate managed the Mt. Meigs school, which was considered "an outgrowth" of Hampton.[6]

Famous residents included baseball legend Leroy Satchel Paige, from 1918-1923.[7]

Earlier in its life, its capacity was 312 boys.[8]

There was controversy, in April 2008, when parent Glenn Herrmann said authorities surrounded his Randolph County home and accused him of helping his son break free at the Mount Meigs Campus.[9]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Mt. Meigs Campus." Alabama Department of Youth Services. Retrieved on July 26, 2010.
  2. ↑ "School District Contact Information and Addresses." Alabama Department of Youth Services. Retrieved on July 26, 2010. "DYS Central Office" "1000 Industrial School Road Mt. Meigs, AL 36057"
  3. ↑ Alabama Boys Industrial School, Alabama Training School for Girls and Alabama Industrial School - Donations and endowment funds.
  4. ↑ USA STATUTES : ALABAMA, TITLE : TITLE 16 EDUCATION, CHAPTER : CHAPTER 24 TENURE OF EMPLOYMENT OF TEACHERS.
  5. ↑ Department of Youth Services Functional Analysis & Records Disposition Authority
  6. ↑ Southern Workman. volume 44, 1916, page 313
  7. ↑ Paige, Leroy (Satchel) (1993). Maybe I’ll Pitch Forever. (As told to David Lipman). University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-8732-1.
  8. ↑ "Mt. Meigs Campus." (old page) Alabama Department of Youth Services. Retrieved on March 4, 2011
  9. ↑ "Father awaits escapee's call", 9 April 2008, Montgomery Advertiser


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