Florence Bowser

At top and background, the current Florence Bowser Elementary School; above, a historical plaque for Florence Graded School; opposite page, a portrait of Florence Bowser (courtesy of her family).

BY JIMMY LAROUE

Staff Writer

Florence Bowser left an indelible mark on education in Suffolk.

It was felt when she began her nearly 60-year teaching career in 1892, and carried over her efforts from a neighboring area in coming to what was then Nansemond County in the Sleepy Hole District.

It was felt as she organized the Sleepy Hole District Improvement League and spent many years raising money to build a new school. That school, a Rosenwald school, was built in 1920, paid for in part using money from the Julius Rosenwald Fund, which gave seed money for schools to educate black students in the segregated south.

The Rosenwald School at Shoulders Hill, the school built with donations she helped to raise, was renamed the Florence Graded School in her honor. That four-room schoolhouse stood just a few feet from where the larger Florence Bowser Elementary was dedicated in 1963 and closed in 2016 as students went to Driver Elementary School until a new school was built.

Both the Florence Graded School and the old Florence Bowser Elementary were demolished to make way for that new school, named, of course, Florence Bowser Elementary, which opened in 2018.

And though she died in 1949, Bowser’s legacy is strongly felt today in that new school, shining not only in the halls, where a photograph of Bowser greets students daily, but also in the classrooms, where her ideals are carried out.

Principal Melodie Griffin said it’s an honor to be in a building associated with such a powerful legacy.

“We’re working to uphold the standard that she has established,” Griffin said. “Her desire was to have children be educated, children of color to be

educated, and we’ve grown and evolved and we’re now educating children of all colors, all races, all ethnicities.

“And we want to make sure that we are continuing to uphold that legacy of just pure dedication, commitment, spirit of excellence, to make sure that we are meeting the needs of our children individually and collectively, and meeting the needs of our staff, our parents, our community, individually and collectively. We do that under the umbrella of Florence Bowser.”

Bonita V. Landy Gilchrist, one of Bowser’s great-granddaughters, said her great-grandmother had a deep respect for education and higher learning. Growing up, she would see Florence Bowser’s photo in her home and see her graduation cap and gown as a silent reminder to further their education.

“It shows up in all of her descendant’s family members,” Landy Gilchrist said. “We all believe in higher education, and we value it above everything.”

The current school, according to Griffin, embodies her vision and character as her staff tries to do what Bowser did, operate in a spirit of excellence.

“Her legacy has grown from just educating one race of people, in body and spirit, to bringing them all together and connecting them, and now we’re educating all races of people,” Griffin said, “and we’re giving them quality education and making sure that we are pouring our passion and our commitment and our desire on those children so that they have that opportunity, the same as everyone else.”

Griffin’s assistant principal, Cheryl Riddick, likes to say that Bowser took a seed that has blossomed to an oak tree, Griffin said.

“We look at small Florence Bowser, and what that represented, what that meant, and for me to be able to be in

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both places,” Griffin said, “you can’t help but embody the spirit of Florence Bowser and what she represented, and what she meant.”

It’s important for Griffin to uphold Bowser’s legacy, and to give to the next generation of leaders and educators at the school.

“We walk in this building and you feel that sense of her spirit,” Griffin said. “When you think about what she started, which was so small and so tiny, and how it has impacted the

community then, and how it continues to impact that community now. So, I feel a sense of the importance of the role that I have because she started her work, and that work has continued.”

And what would Florence Bowser see if she walked through the school named for her?

“I think if she walked through the halls of this building,” Griffin said, “she would be able to say, ‘Job well done. Vision achieved.’”