Janie Porter Barrett--(9 Aug. 1865-27 Aug. 1948)

Janie Porter Barrett was born in Athens, Ga. She graduated from Hampton Institute and soon began teaching home-management techniques to other young African American women and girls. In 1915, Barrett founded the Industrial School for Wayward Colored Girls nearby, the third reform school specifically for black girls in the United States. The school long survived its predecessors in Maryland and Missouri, and was also the first--and for several years the only--such state-supported school. Barrett used progressive, humane methods, operating on an honor system and forbidding corporal punishment. In 1950, the school was renamed the Janie Porter Barrett School for Girls.

Department of Historic Resources, 1999