Significant as the site of the first public school building for blacks in Jackson, and the parent school for all of Jackson's black community, Smith Roberson School was named for one of the city's most prominent black citizens of the nineteenth century, an early leader in education for African American children, newly freed from slavery. The later portion of the building which remains today is an early and quite sophisticated example of Art Deco style in Mississippi. The school building was individually listed on the National Register on 13 December 1978. It was later included as element #631 in Farish Street Neighborhood Historic District, which was placed on the National Register on 13 March 1980. It was designated a Mississippi Landmark on 5 January 1984. This building is included in "Jackson Landmarks" (1982) (pp. 174-175), "Jackson (Images of America)" (1998) (p. 84), and "Buildings of Mississippi" (2020) (pp. 251-252, JM35). |