EDITOR’S NOTE — This is the second installment of a four-story February series dedicated to people and/or places key to Black history in Effingham County. 

GUYTON —  The one-room schools that used to dot the Effingham County landscape are gone or in decaying condition. Ninety-five-year-old Ernestine Hunter’s memories of them remain steadfast, however.

Hunter started a lengthy teaching career in 1942 when one-room schools were bastions of hope and opportunities for Black students. She was the only teacher at her first school, Baker Hill.

“I taught all the grades,” she said. 

Hunter treasures a scrapbook that includes notes of appreciation that many of her students wrote to her. She is still receiving expressions of gratitude today, 37 years after her retirement from the Effingham County School District.

“I still see some of my students and it makes me feel good when they tell me I helped them,” she said. “Some of them visit me sometimes.”

Just 17 when she accepted her first teaching job, Hunter was able to keep her students on a solid developmental track despite the their varying ages and their classroom’s Spartan conditions.

“It normally wasn’t that hard,” she said. “The school usually had between 20 and 30 students. Sometimes there weren’t students in every grade.”

Elementary school consisted of grades 1-7 when Hunter started teaching. The students’ ages ranged from 5-17.

In order to attend high school, Effingham County’s Black students had to travel to Savannah or Statesboro until 1956 when Springfield Central High School and Elementary School was created.

“Most of the (Black) students didn’t go to high school (before 1956),” Hunter said.

Hunter said school sessions started at 8 a.m. and ended at 3 p.m. She frequently began winter days much earlier in 1942 so that she could build a fire in the chimney. It was that way for 12 years until she moved to a school with multiple classrooms.

Her contemporaries at other Effingham County schools endured similar circumstances. There were approximately two dozen one-room schools for white students at the time and nearly as many for Black students.

In addition to Baker Hill,  Black students, prior to 1956, attended one-room schools named Baker Hill, Bethel, Clifford, Clyo, Ebenezer, Egypt, Guyton, Eden, Fetzer, Mariah Grove, Marlow, Meldrim, Oak Grove, Pierce Public, Rahns, Rainey Grove, Rincon, Reidsville, Savannah Town, Scuffletown, Skinner’s Bay, Taylor’s Chapel, Springfield, Stillwell, Tusculum, Thomas Chapel and Union Springs.

Hunter stuck to a regimented class schedule, allotting time for math, reading, English, spelling, health and other subjects.

“I liked teaching most all the subjects, especially math and reading,” the Savannah State College graduate said. Hunter received her education degree by attending night classes several years after her teaching career  started. 

Hunter entertained her first thoughts of becoming an educator when she was in elementary school.

“I guess I was just attached to my teachers and I wanted to be like them,” she said.

Hunter was successful in mimicking her mentors. She maintained a professional attitude and appearance whether she was in the classroom or not. As a result, she commanded respect from the community. 

“Teachers were held in very high esteem then,” she said. “Today is a different time.”

Hunter had the option of corporal punishment if a child misbehaved.

“We could then but I don’t think you can now,” she said. “I had to get tough with a few.”

Hunter said she could count on parents siding with her when she reported a student’s misbehavior or poor grades.

“Most of the time,” she said with a laugh. “I don’t think it’s that way now. Teachers are always being challenged about this or that.”

Hunter said after-school tutoring or discipline wasn’t a good option for struggling students because of limitations on their ability to travel. 

“A lot of the students had to walk to school and home,” she said. “When (the schools) got bus service, they had to leave at 3 o’clock so we hardly had anybody stay over. If they did, their parents would had to pick them up.”

Fortunately, most of Hunter’s early students arrived at school eager to learn and be challenged intellectually.

“We didn’t have a lot of other things to attract their attention,” she said. “There were no radios, TVs or a lot of community activities. Now children have different kinds of clubs, organizations and many activities throughout the year.

“There was no 4-H Club or community baseball team — just different things to attract their attention and kept them busy.”

Hunter said most children in the 1940s cherished books the same way may of today’s children love video games.

“Yes! Yes!,” she said. “I liked to read, too.”

Hunter said her students were given ample time for physical activities during the school day, too.

“We had a morning recess and then lunchtime,” she said. “Sometimes in the afternoons we would go out for PE.”

Hunter endured one apprehensive stretch during her career. It centered on integration in 1970.

“The year before, the black and white teachers in the county changed classrooms every so often,” she said. “They white teachers would come to the Black schools and the Black teachers would go to the white schools.

“I wasn’t in the exchange group but everything worked out good. There were no uprisings or anything in this county.”

Hunter said she felt supported and was treated fairly by school officials.

“During that period (of segregation), I got school supplies — books and things, teaching aids,” she said. 

 Integration was the biggest change for the better during Hunter’s career but it wasn’t close to being the only one.

“The (bus) transportation, the buildings, the lunchroom program — it’s all better,” she said.

A farmer’s daughter who  understood the value of education and hard work at an early age, Hunter guided thousands of students during a career that included stops at Union Springs and Clyo before ending at Marlow Elementary School in 1984. She has fond memories of experiences with them.

“I remember all the activities that I especially enjoyed,” she said. “I remember when we had field day when all the schools would come together for competitive activities. I remember county-wide graduations and when we had field trips that I especially enjoyed.

“We had different activities each year that we looked forward to but field day was quite the attraction.”

Hunter said she never entertained thoughts about making a living any other way.

“I guess I really liked it to stay in teaching” she said. “I needed to work and I was doing what I was supposed to do, I guess.”

EDITOR’S NOTE — Lucy Powell, Willie Wright and Thomas Lonon contributed photos and/or information for this story.