Smith Corona Typewriter

This Smith Corona typewriter was used by teachers at Pleasant Hill School, a school for Black children that operated in Texas during segregation.

The State Constitution of 1876 established racial segregation of public schools in Texas. Of the little education funding that existed, most went to white schools. Oftentimes Black schools in the rural South were located in dilapidated buildings or in churches or private homes, and many communities had no schools at all. In Cass County, the Pleasant Hill School opened in 1925, one of 466 schools in Texas built as part of the Rosenwald Program.

In 1912 Julius Rosenwald (1862–1932), a Jewish philanthropist and the president of Sears, Roebuck and Company, and Booker T. Washington (1856–1915), a leader in the Black community and founder of the Tuskegee Institute, created a program to try and address the racial education gap. Over the next 25 years they helped finance the construction and operation of nearly 5,000 schools across 15 Southern states, including Texas.

Texas was a major beneficiary of the Rosenwald program, receiving funds that led to the construction of schools, teachers' homes, and industrial shops in 82 different counties. The majority of Rosenwald Schools in the state were constructed in East Texas.

Pleasant Hill School teachers used this typewriter to type exams that would then be copied with a duplicator machine and distributed to students. The Smith Corona company began in 1886 in Syracuse, New York, but the company peaked after World War II when it introduced portable electric typewriters to consumers. These typewriters became essential tools for a generation of U.S. students and teachers. At its peak, 54 students were enrolled at the Pleasant Hill School. Classes ended in 1964, and after years of disuse, the school was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.

Today, the building serves the community as the Pleasant Hill Center and is home to the Pleasant Hill Quilting Group — members make quilts that celebrate Black history and raise money for the building’s upkeep. This typewriter remains at the Pleasant Hill Center today to help interpret its history as a school.