Conditions at Severn School, a school for white children, were described this way in the Gazette-Journal in September, 1948:

“…Patrons offered their three-room school for comparison with any school in the county—for bottom place, that is.

“Nathan Belvin of Severn stated that he believed conditions at Severn are the worst in the county—“And nothing is done to improve them,” he said.

“Captain S. Shackelford, retired fisherman, recalled that he loaned the money to the county 40 years ago to build the school. The construction cost $1,800, he said, and was later paid back,

“The school principal, Miss Betty Thomas, who has been teaching there for 20 years, said she and the other teacher, Miss Eunice Clements, must start fires in the classroom stoves each cold morning, taking wood that has to be stored within the school building due to the lack of an outside shed. To reach the outdoor toilets, which some patrons described as ‘filthy,’ students are said to wade through water in ra...