Graymont Elementary School

A mother withdraws her son from school on September 10, 1963. UPI photo

Graymont Elementary School is a former elementary school in the Birmingham City Schools system. It was located at 300 8th Avenue West in the Graymont neighborhood. It was first opened in 1901 with additions completed in 1908.

Graymont was the first school in the Birmingham system to be integrated when James Armstrong, who had prevailed in his lawsuit, Armstrong v. Birmingham Board of Education, saw his sons Dwight and Floyd enter school under on September 10, a day after they had been turned away from the door.

After integration, Graymont Elementary became largely redundant to Hill Elementary School, which had been reconstructed in the 1950s. It closed in 1989.

In the mid 1990s, the vacant former school was restored and adapted for the offices of the Jefferson County Committee for Economic Opportunity (JCCEO), which operates federally-funded social programs such as pre-kindergarten, adult day care, substance abuse, nutrition, utility assistance, job training, residential weatherization, and family counseling. JCCEO also operates the Arrington Head Start Center, home of Alabama's first public pre-K classroom, from Graymont

In 2007 the Graymont School was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

References

• "JCCEO Celebrates 100th Anniversary and Historic Designation of the Graymont School Building" (Winter 2009) Action News. Community Action Association of Alabama, p. 5