When public schools close in summer, Vacation Bible Schools begin. The Gazette-Journal in 1939 ran photographs of many Bible schools, including the one shown above which is historic for two reasons. The photograph, which ran Aug. 3, 1939, shows “the first Negro daily Vacation Bible School to be held in Mathews.” That’s the first bit of history. The second is that the effort, which had an average daily attendance of 200 children, was held at the original Thomas Hunter School and the photograph shows a good portion of that building, which was taken down after a brick THS opened in 1954. Even in the highly segregated South of that day, this VBS was an interracial effort, as the newspaper reported: “The children were transported by bus from the Negro churches and the transportation was financed by the white churches.” Mrs. H.A. Sadler, standing at left, supervised the school. Teachers and workers were the Rev. Walter White, A.N. Lewis, Dr. F. White, Mrs. V.M. ...