Marker Text: Florance Street School was designed by the firm Levy and Clarke and built in 1929 as one of the early public schools in Savannah built specifically for African-American students. It contributed greatly to Savannah's Cuyler-Brownville community by offering quality education and leadership development to its students. The school's construction was a direct result of efforts by Savannah's African-American community in 1928 to remedy inequities in segregated schools. These efforts brought about a three-hundred-percent increase in state expenditures for black schools. Florance Street School was desegregated in 1971, along with Savannah's other public schools, and it continued to serve as an elementary school until 1987. The building was rehabilitated as housing in 2000.
Erected by the Georgia Historical Society, Mercy Housing SouthEast, Sisters of Mercy, St. Joseph's/Candler, and Cuyler-Brownville Neighborhood Association