MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa – It has been more than 115 years since a Marshalltown man packed up his things and headed south to establish a school in the rural Mississippi backwoods. 

The Piney Woods School is still in existence today and the people there are forever grateful for its founder and his Iowa roots. 

“It is now the oldest, the longest serving historically African-American boarding program prep program in our nation,” said Will Crossley told WHO-13 reporter Katie Kaplan.

Crossley has been the President of Piney Woods since 2014.

The campus sits twenty miles outside of the state’s Capital in Jackson. Its sprawling 2,000-acre campus is a far cry from its humble beginning. Crossley called it the “picture of perseverance.”

“When he first came to Mississippi, he struggled to get it started and almost gave up,” he said.

Crossley was recalling the story of its founder, Laurence C. Jones. It was 1909 when the recent college grad ventured South to start a school in the poorest place he could find.

The young black man had been born in Missouri but had spent his formative years living with relatives in central Iowa.

“His living quarters weren’t all that good,” said Marshalltown Mayor Joel Greer. “He was in a windowless basement in the hotel, but he did well in school and they liked him.”

Greer, who has been mayor for seven years, is considered a local expert on Jones’s history. He has studied several publications on Professor Jones, traveled to The Piney Woods School to speak about Jones’ Marshalltown roots, and delivered remarks on Jones during a recent Historical Society of Marshall County fundraiser.

A 1902 City Directory provided by the HSMC, showed that Jones worked as a waiter at the Pilgrim Hotel downtown when he would have been studying at Marshalltown High School. He graduated in 1903 as its first black student. 

“He was the only diversity back in 1903,” said Greer. 

Jones went on to study at the University of Iowa on scholarship. He graduated in 1907 and reportedly turned down a bevy of prestigious offers to instead head to rural Rankin County, Missouri. 

“At this time in this county, over 80% of the residents- all residents, black and white- were functionally illiterate,” said Crossley.

With little money, Jones connected with churches in the area and eventually landed his first pupil.

“It was really while he was sitting on a fallen log under the shade of an old cedar tree here on our campus that the first student came along,” said Crossley. “A young man who wanted to learn how to read and he began to teach him how to read.”

It wasn’t long before that student brought a friend and then that friend brought another, said Crossley.

“Eventually a log cabin was donated, and more and more. 40 acres were donated,” he said.

Students often bartered for their tuition, providing labor and goods in exchange for lessons. They learned to read, farm, and sew, among other things, while they also helped to hand-build the campus and develop the land.

Meanwhile, Jones worked tirelessly through the era of Jim Crow Segregation to raise money for the school. He toured singing students known as the ‘Cotton Blossom Singers’ across Iowa and beyond. He also solicited donations from private donors who were both black and white. Many were acquatintances from his time in Marshalltown.

“It showed the extraordinary impact that one man, Lawrence Clifton Jones, could have for all of humanity,” said Crossley.

Should one need further proof of Jones’ impact, they need not look further than Crossley.

“Forty years ago I was growing up on the south side of Chicago and I got a scholarship to come to school here,” he said. “It was an experience that changed my life.”

Crossley went on to attend the University of Chicago on a scholarship. He then got his master’s degree from Harvard University and eventually graduated from law school. He worked as a litigation attorney and then as Chief Counsel for the Democratic National Committee before he was appointed by then-President Barack Obama to be the Senior Advisor in the Office for Civil Rights within the U.S. Department of Education.

He left his esteemed position for another when he returned to sit at the helm of Piney Woods roughly ten years ago.

“I do this work because Laurence Jones started this work,” he said.

Crossley now shepherds students from around the globe, including inside one particular building named ‘Iowa Hall’ in memory of where it all took root.  

In recent years, the school has brought a pilgrimage back to Iowa to follow in the footsteps of Jones and other notable alumni. They tour Marshalltown, Des Moines, and Drake University. President Crossley said they hope to make another trip in 2025.

Unlike traditional private schools, none of the students who attend Piney Woods pay tuition. Their families are asked to donate within their means and the rest of the cost is sponsored by a network of private donors. If you would like to contribute to the success of Piney Woods students and ensure Professor Jones’ legacy lives on, you can do so here.