My trip to the Penn Center was very informative. I was eager to tour the campus after I learned about its history and how it was the first formal academic school in the South to educate blacks. I created a picture collage using pictures of the campus that were the most captivating to me. First, I’d start with the museum. The museum had so many pictures and artifacts about the Penn Center. I was proud to learn that people like me, an African-American, were allowed to get an education during such a difficult time for blacks in American history. The organizations and clubs that the children were involved in allowed them to have exposure to so many good things. After the museum, the Gantt Cottage is meaningful to me because it’s in honor of Hastings Gantt who made it possible for Laura Towne to start the Penn School. All of the buildings on campus are remarkable but my favorite building on the entire campus was the Butler Building. This building was the “jack-of-all-trades”, many organizational meetings were held here. Not only did this building stand for the Penn Center but it also housed people who refused to fight in the Vietnam War.  Even after the school has closed, it’s now a library for the first Penn Center teacher, Laura Towne. How great is that?

The Penn Center isn’t my only Freedman Bureau School experience, my high school, Wilson High of Florence, SC, was a also a Freedman Bureau School. These two schools have educated many African-Americans, and I am very proud of their accomplishments.