Dunbar Carver Museum

History

May of 1970, Carver High School ceased operation as a high school. This closing marked a major turning point for the African American community of Haywood County.  It ended a lineage of African American educational institutions in Haywood County, starting in the late 1800s with, Brownsville Colored Normal School, Dunbar School, and Haywood County Training School, and numerous feeder schools.  For generations, these schools served as anchors of knowledge, protection, and pride within a segregated society. Their disappearance created a void not only in education, but in public recognition and historical memory.

The community refused to allow that legacy to disappear.

In the early 1980s, alumni and former faculty organized the Dunbar–Haywood County Training–Carver High School Alumni Association (DHCTCHSAA), establishing a nonprofit dedicated to preserving the history of these schools and the communities that sustained them. As Black families migrated across the country, the Association grew—chartering chapters throughout major cities in the East and Midwest, with other members nationwide.

From its beginning, the Association’s mission has centered on brotherhood, sisterhood, remembrance, and preservation. Every two years—without interruption—an all-class reunion is held. These gatherings are more than moments of nostalgia; they are affirmations of survival, resilience, and achievement against overwhelming odds.

This enduring commitment reached a milestone in September 2007, when the Association opened the Dunbar Carver Museum inside the last remaining structure of Carver High School. The building itself became a living archive—dedicated to the preservation, documentation, and celebration of African American history in Haywood County and rural West Tennessee.