Blanche Ely’s legacy to live on in modern museum
POMPANO BEACH — Some 20 years since Pompano Beach purchased the home of educational pioneer Blanche Ely, the push is on to pay tribute to her work advancing education in the age of segregation.
Before the end of the year, the home Ely lived in with her husband, Joseph, should begin its transformation into a museum filled with educational artifacts that date to the 1930s.
When the museum is completed, people will be able to look through archives and research the area’s AfricanAmerican communities with yearbooks, old photographs and other items that were part of the era when Ely and her husband were educators.
Emma Ellington, 76, said she remembers Ely.
Ely was a teacher to Ellington’s mother, who died in 1941, and then became Ellington’s principal when Ely’s school was called Pompano Beach Colored School.
“She changed us as students,” said Ellington, who is now president of the Pompano Beach Women’s Club. “Although we were reading out of hand-me-down books that needed taping up, it did not stop our brains from knowing what was going on.
“She taught us if we could read and write, we could make it in life,” Ellington recalled.
Her impact was felt so intensely, the school was called “Blanche Ely High School” beginning in 1951, when she was principal and the school included grades one through 12.
City Commissioner Beverly Perkins wants the project done quickly so some of her students can be a part of it.