Among 10 new historical markers recently approved by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources for placement along Virginia roads is one to commemorate Thomas Hunter School in Mathews, which was founded in 1926 as a Rosenwald school.

The marker “Thomas Hunter (Rosenwald) School” relays the story of the founding of the Mathews [County] Educational League in 1923 and the black community raising $9,900 to build a four-room school between 1926 and 1927. The Julius Rosenwald Foundation provided matching funds and building plans, making Thomas Hunter one of more than 5,000 schools and affiliated structures for black students the Rosenwald Fund underwrote between 1917 and 1932.

Named for Thomas Hunter, a former slave, the school relocated to a new building in 1953.

Thomas Hunter Middle School principal Laurel Byrd said that representatives from the state will have to survey the site before the sign is erected, which may be up to three months. “We are shooting for Foun...