The land that is now home to the Mason County Detention Center was once home to the John G. Fee School, a segregated school for black students in Mason County.
The site would later become the Maysville Junior High School, before being abandoned in 1983 and purchased by the Mason County Fiscal Court in 1987. The building was demolished in 1993 and plans were made for the Mason County Detention Center.
In 1997, a dedication ceremony was held and plaques honoring the Fee School’s first principal, Professor William H. Humphrey and the Maysville High School Principal Oliver Wendell Whyte were placed in front of the detention center.
Named for abolitionist, and founder of Berea College, John G. Fee, the school opened in 1930Â and many African-American students passed through the halls.
One of those students, Maysville resident Carol Bennett, said she can still remember her time at Fee School. Bennett said she was a student at Fee School until she turned 15. She had just completed ninth grade.
“I left when I was 15, so that was about 1951, and I got married at 16,” she said. “Later, I got my GED at the Maysville High School.”
Before leaving, however, Bennett spent many years as a student at Fee.
“I was 6 years old when I started school in 1942,” she said. “At that time, there was no kindergarten. There was high first and low first. If you knew what you were doing, you could finish in a year. You would take low first for a semester and high first for a semester. But, if you didn’t know what you were doing, you would have to take low first for a whole year.”
Bennett said one of her fondest memories of Fee was the principal, Professor William H. Humphrey who was rather fond of peanuts and treated all of the students with care.
“I remember he really like peanuts,” she said. “He would sit in the gym eating them and watch the students play. He called all of us “little ones.” I don’t know if it was because he couldn’t remember our names or if he just liked calling us that. But, he was a great principal. In the winter, he would let us toss the boys out in the snow.”
According to Bennett, there were also classes in home economics for the girls and auto-mechanics or shop for the boys.
“Us girls would have to get into groups and plan a meal and prepare it,” she said. “If it was good, you got a good grade. The classroom was set up as a kind of apartment. There was a living room and a kitchen — I can’t remember if there was a bedroom, but I remember the living room and kitchen.”
One of the things Bennett was not fond of was the lack of black history in the curriculum.
“We had Kentucky history and there was no history about black people in the history books,” she said. “So, our teacher would take the time to tell us all about black heroes. We would have discussions during class and learned about many people, including Madam C.J. Walker.”
Every student who attended Fee either walked or hired a driver to take them. Bennett said she was one of the students who usually walked.
“I lived up on East End, on the railroad tracks,” she said. “I walked to school everyday, but occasionally we could hire Walter Peters to drive us for 50 cents a week. He did that for about two years before he stopped. We would all climb into his car and the big ones sat down while the small ones stood in the back. There were no seat belts back then and the cars were a lot bigger.”
Bennett said when she did walk to school, she remembered seeing the German prisoners from World War II who were being held in what is now Wald Park.
“We would walk by right about the time they came out in the trucks up there,” she said. “Sometimes, the prisoners would be singing. I don’t know what they were singing about, but I remember them singing away. We’d pass by and listen to them sing while we walked to school.”
There were other children who attended Fee School that did not live in Mason County. Those students, from Fleming County, Bracken County, Augusta and Vanceburg, had to find other ways to get to school. The children from Augusta and Vanceburg would take the train to the Maysville Depot.
“They would take the train to Maysville and walk from the station to the school,” she said. “Then, after school, they would walk back and take the train home. All the black kids from those areas came here to attend Fee.”
Transportation was not just a problem to get to and from school. The students also had to find ways to make it to basketball tournaments.
“The boys would have to hire people to take them to games in private cars,” she said. “Those who wanted to go to the games could hire Mr. Green to take us by bus. I don’t remember how much we paid them, but I think it was something around $1.”
Bennett said attending a segregated school was never a concern to her. It was not something that really crossed her mind.
“It was actually nice,” she said. “It was a small school and everyone knew everyone else. I had a teacher that would say, ‘Carol, if you don’t stop that talking, I’m going to tell your mother.’ It was very close knit.”
Bennett said her only regret over the years is the loss of the Fee School building.
“I wish we could have saved it,” she said. “Don’t get me wrong, we needed a jail, but I wish they hadn’t put it there. There just wasn’t enough interest in saving it.”