Michele Skalicky talks with Crocket Oaks III about the Lincoln School Project and why he left a full-time job to focus on it.
Tell me about your family's ties to Lincoln School and how you came to own it.
Oaks: So Lincoln School is a 1926 segregated, one room school in West Plains, Missouri. My wife (Tonya) and I purchased Lincoln School from the City of West Plains in July of 2023. And from that point on, we have been restoring the building. We accomplished the completion of that in January and since then, we've been doing programing at Lincoln School for the last almost two and a half years. And so (we're) very excited about what we have going on there and very excited about the future of things to come.
And was it your father that attended school there? Did you have other family members?
Oaks: He did. My father was a part of the last class to actually be educated at Lincoln School, and my aunts also went to school there all the way up through the eighth grade, from first through eighth grade.
How did you decide to come back here and purchase this building and take on this project?
Oaks: Oh, great question. Thanks for asking. I was in Houston, Texas. We moved back to Missouri — Saint Louis for a couple of years and then eventually came back to West Plains after my father fell ill in 2020. And then COVID hit, and during that time, I was kind of looking around at some of the things here in West Plains that were very institutional recognition of the African American community. And Sadie Brown Cemetery is one of those institutions that still remains obviously here, and Lincoln School was the other. And it had fallen into disrepair. And while I had no immediate plans to restore Lincoln School, it just seemed like the right and natural thing to do given its history and given the fact that it had, you know, remained standing and servicing the community for all that time. Not only had it been a school from 1926 to 1954, it had been a VFW center as well as the home of the summer program for the city, the 4-H program, and then finally the home of Alcoholics Anonymous. So it just packed a lot of history for the community, not least for the historical African American community here in West Plains. And so someone needed to do it. And my wife and I just — one thing led to another, and it ended up being us that that did it.
It's gorgeous. I mean, you've got some amazing artwork in there. It's just a beautiful space now from the pictures I've seen. I haven't got to see it in person, but it looks like you've really done a lot of work on it.
Oaks: Thank you. I look forward to showing you it in person sometime soon. I tell you, we've had a lot of foot traffic to come through, people just curious about what we've done in that space. And we've been very intentional about using art to help frame our narrative for the space. And it's been received very well by the community. It's really been a community effort the whole way through.
And have you had many programs yet in that space?
Oaks: We average about two programs a month, and we have since the inception, since we started holding programs there in January of 2024. And so we've had community members coming to the space with their organizational groups to hear stories about, you know, what took place there. We've had presentations that we've sponsored and brought individuals into the community to talk about their topic of expertise, just a number of different things. I tell you, the variety of programing that we've had has really been something that's been transitional for the community in that space.
I'm curious, how important is the Lincoln School Project in helping spark those important conversations about racism?
Oaks: I think it's very important because I think that that's how racism actually flourishes is by not being discussed and not being identified through our activities and just awareness of the poisons of racism. And so I think through that meaningful discussion within that space, it has helped our community just get some things off of its chest that it needed to.
And why did you decide it was time to step away from your current job and focus on the Lincoln School Project full time?
Oaks: Well, it was, I turned 55 this year, and it was, in my opinion, the right time given where I was at in my personal journey with Lincoln School and where I was at with the university. While I loved the role that I fulfilled there at the university, it just seemed like more and more individuals kept telling me that Lincoln School and the discussions around Lincoln School and the programing seemed to be my passion. And so, you know, following my passion, it seemed like the right thing to do at the right time just because I'm not getting any younger, and it felt like if I was going to make a move with taking Lincoln School to a national audience to stimulate key critical dialog around racism, this would be the right time — racism among other things.
What are your plans for trying to take it to that national level?
Oaks: Well, they're still in developmental phase as far as the actual steps that we want to take, but I think just, big picture, high level, it's about creating dialog around things that are going on within our current environment. Helping to frame discussions in the form of a podcast that addresses popular culture and issues as well as inviting keynote presenters on relevant topics of the day to come to West Plains to help tee up certain discussions. And so it looks like a little bit of all of that. And I think that, given the population that we have here in West Plains, we're in the rural Ozarks, it would be an interesting test bed for certain topics to understand how the rest of America may feel about certain things. And so I think Lincoln School is just poised to be a discussion leader for certain things.
In 2026 is going to be our centennial year. We've got a number of cool things in the pipeline with regard to Lincoln School. We're creating a comic book that kind of sets out elements of the Lincoln School story that I think will be well received, as well as a big centennial celebration that we're planning for in June of 2026. So stay tuned. It's going to be a fun year.
