Beckley's first Negro school was opened in 1907 near the border of Beckley and Mabscott, in the center of the little community where members of the black race then settled. The little school, a one-room, wooden structure, served the 10 families who constituted the entire Negro population of the Beckley area. About 1912 the school site was moved to a larger structure erected on the present site of the Pioneer Hotel on South Fayette Street, then called the colored Elementary School.

An important bit of the history of education in Raleigh County was wrapped around the school's first teacher. She was born Miss Mary Booze, but her married name was Reaves. A pillar of education, she was later chosen to give her name, along with E. L. Morton, to the former elementary school on South Fayette Street. Another of the first teachers was Mrs. Hattie DeHaven of Charleston. Both she and Mrs. Reaves taught in the same room. When the school had moved to its second site, E. L. Morton entered the picture as the first principal. For years he and Mrs. Reaves taught in the same room.

Among the members of the first graduating class from the first school were Ernest Wright, James Wright, who has been a teacher and principal in Raleigh County schools for nearly a decade, LeeRoy and Susie Robinson and Edna Walker.
At that time, Negro education was sharply limited. Early students recall that the state supported three high schools , at Bluefield, at Institute and at Harper's Ferry - but the counties themselves had yet to organize their first Negro high.
Bluefield Institute, West Virginia Institute and Storer College offered both high school and trade courses, but they represented long trips away from home for the local students. In later years, high schools were organized within the counties, providing for a more even distribution of opportunity for education. In the early days, many students traveled to the Virginia Normal Industrial Institute for their training.