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ATHENS-On Thursday, December 17 a ribbon-cutting and grand opening was held for the Pincham-Lincoln Community Center, which is part of Trinity School, Limestone County’s only all-black high school until the Limestone County School System was ordered by a federal judge to integrate in 1970 or face $3,000 a day fine for each day the system remained segregated.
ATHENS-On Thursday, December 17 a ribbon-cutting and grand opening was held for the Pincham-Lincoln Community Center, which is part of Trinity School, Limestone County’s only all-black high school until the Limestone County School System was ordered by a federal judge to integrate in 1970 or face $3,000 a day fine for each day the system remained segregated.The site served as a Union Civil War fort called Fort Henderson, and a small section of that fort remains. It was here that runaway slaves fought and were captured by Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest. After the war, missionary Mary Fletcher Wells established Trinity to educate former slaves. The school served the community until integration and then fell into disrepair.
The Athens-Limestone Community Association started an effort to save the remaining part of the fort and some of the school. The City of Athens obtained a $290,000 Community Development Block Grant from ADECA to build the Pincham-Lincoln Community Center to serve the community with educational, cultural and other programs. ALCA raised the match money and secured the old band room which will eventually become a museum and archives facility for the site.
The project received support from various facets of the community from Trinity staff and students, City of Athens, Limestone County Commission, Limestone County Legislative Delegation, Athens Rotary, NAACP, Sons of Confederate Veterans, Resource Conservation and Development Council, Athens-Limestone Tourism, and many others.
Among the honored guests today were Trinity graduate Maxine Pulley, who is 101 years old, and ADECA Director Jim Byard.
