Our Clarke
Named as a teacher at Boyce Colored school by the Clarke Courier in July 1925 and as secretary of the Clarke County School League by the People's Journal in August 1927.
Named as a teacher at the Boyce colored school by the Clarke Courier in July 1925, and as Mrs. Alma B. Layton, secretary of the Clarke County School League, by the People's Journal in August 1927. Two roles, two years apart, tying the county's Black classroom to its Black civic body.
Alma Layton is named as a teacher at the Boyce colored school by the Clarke Courier in July 1925 and as Mrs. Alma B. Layton, secretary of the Clarke County School League, by the People's Journal in August 19271. Two positions and two years is not a long career, but it is exactly the sort of trajectory the two Clarke papers together document better than either does alone. She is in the white paper's roster as a working teacher and in the Black paper's committee list as an office-holder in a county-wide organisation. The two records also confirm — through the shared surname across both — that this is one person.
One claim establishes Layton's specific movement between the two roles. Missing from the corpus so far: her age, birthplace, and training, whether she taught before 1925 or after 1927, whether she left Clarke County or stayed. The Clarke County School Board's own minutes (a records series the project has not yet seen) and the FamilySearch WWI and census schedules would open most of it.
Alma Layton is named as a teacher at Boyce Colored school by the Clarke Courier in July 1925 and as Mrs. Alma B. Layton, secretary of the Clarke County School League, by the People's Journal in August 1927.
A person appearing in both papers in two roles, teaching and League office, which is the kind of bridge that lets the two sources be read as describing one community rather than two.
An identification from a name, in a county where the Courier's same 1925 list also names Clarissa Layton at Millwood Colored and the People's Journal's 1927 committee names DeRoy Layton for Millwood. Layton is evidently a common surname in this community, so the identification rests on the shared forename Alma and not on the surname. No family relationship between any of the Laytons is claimed.
Evidence role: supports. Alma Layton at Boyce Colored in the Courier's 1925 list.
Clarke Courier · 1925-07-09 (publication)
Locator: Printed page 1, teacher assignment list, colored schools
Relevant passageStone Bridge colored -- Ella F. Carter. Boyce Colored -- Alma Layton and Matilda Herbert. Millwood Colored -- J. P Rier, Prin., Louise Bannister and Clarissa Layton. White Post Colored -- Estelle Mitchell and Margaretta Richarson. Josephine colored school -- E T. Johnson, Fannie Jenkins, Florine Johnson. Louisville colored -- Emma E. Alexander. Bristol colored -- George W. Carter.
Checked: Existing OCR reviewed. Original image not independently inspected.
Open sourceSource family: clarke-courier. Multiple passages from one source are not independent witnesses.
Evidence role: supports. Mrs. Alma B. Layton as League secretary in the People's Journal's 1927 committee.
G. L. D. Harris, editor · 1927-08-01 (publication)
Locator: Page 2, announcement and committee list
Relevant passageCLARKE COUNTY FALL MEET AT BOYCE, VA. FRIDAY, SEP. 16, 1927. In Mr. R. P. Page's Woods. This Basket Picnic is under the auspices of the Clarke County School League; and the League will spare no pains to make this one of most enjoyable functions of Vacation Season. Contests and Field Sports, Baseball Contest a Specialty. COMMITTEE: Rev. E. T. Johnson, President, Mr. Jacob Jackson, Berryville, Miss Hannah Randolph, Boyce, Mr. Geo. Edwards, Louisville, Mr. DeRoy Layton, Millwood, Mr. Jno. Togging [Toggins], Stone Bridge, Mr. Geo. Carter, Webbtown, Mr. Edward Crittenden, White Post, Mrs. Alma B. Layton, Sec'ty.
Checked: Existing OCR reviewed. Original image not independently inspected.
Open sourceSource family: peoples-journal. Multiple passages from one source are not independent witnesses.
AI-assisted source check (Claude Opus 5) · 2026-09-08. How this project checks its sources
Alma Layton is named as a teacher at Boyce Colored school by the Clarke Courier in July 1925 and as Mrs. Alma B. Layton, secretary of the Clarke County School League, by the People's Journal in August 1927.
Alma Layton is named as a teacher at Boyce Colored school by the Clarke Courier in July 1925 and as Mrs. Alma B. Layton, secretary of the Clarke County School League, by the People's Journal in August 1927.
A person appearing in both papers in two roles, teaching and League office, which is the kind of bridge that lets the two sources be read as describing one community rather than two.
An identification from a name, in a county where the Courier's same 1925 list also names Clarissa Layton at Millwood Colored and the People's Journal's 1927 committee names DeRoy Layton for Millwood. Layton is evidently a common surname in this community, so the identification rests on the shared forename Alma and not on the surname. No family relationship between any of the Laytons is claimed.
Evidence role: supports. Alma Layton at Boyce Colored in the Courier's 1925 list.
Clarke Courier · 1925-07-09 (publication)
Locator: Printed page 1, teacher assignment list, colored schools
Relevant passageStone Bridge colored -- Ella F. Carter. Boyce Colored -- Alma Layton and Matilda Herbert. Millwood Colored -- J. P Rier, Prin., Louise Bannister and Clarissa Layton. White Post Colored -- Estelle Mitchell and Margaretta Richarson. Josephine colored school -- E T. Johnson, Fannie Jenkins, Florine Johnson. Louisville colored -- Emma E. Alexander. Bristol colored -- George W. Carter.
Checked: Existing OCR reviewed. Original image not independently inspected.
Open sourceSource family: clarke-courier. Multiple passages from one source are not independent witnesses.
Evidence role: supports. Mrs. Alma B. Layton as League secretary in the People's Journal's 1927 committee.
G. L. D. Harris, editor · 1927-08-01 (publication)
Locator: Page 2, announcement and committee list
Relevant passageCLARKE COUNTY FALL MEET AT BOYCE, VA. FRIDAY, SEP. 16, 1927. In Mr. R. P. Page's Woods. This Basket Picnic is under the auspices of the Clarke County School League; and the League will spare no pains to make this one of most enjoyable functions of Vacation Season. Contests and Field Sports, Baseball Contest a Specialty. COMMITTEE: Rev. E. T. Johnson, President, Mr. Jacob Jackson, Berryville, Miss Hannah Randolph, Boyce, Mr. Geo. Edwards, Louisville, Mr. DeRoy Layton, Millwood, Mr. Jno. Togging [Toggins], Stone Bridge, Mr. Geo. Carter, Webbtown, Mr. Edward Crittenden, White Post, Mrs. Alma B. Layton, Sec'ty.
Checked: Existing OCR reviewed. Original image not independently inspected.
Open sourceSource family: peoples-journal. Multiple passages from one source are not independent witnesses.
AI-assisted source check (Claude Opus 5) · 2026-09-08. How this project checks its sources
Also indexed as: Alma Layton; Mrs. Alma B. Layton. Life dates that aren't known aren't guessed at here.
Know who this was, or something the records here miss? Help fill a gap. It stays private until it is reviewed.
The Clarke Courier called it the County League of Negro schools. The People's Journal called it the Clarke County School League. It had $28 when it started and $1,265.95 eleven months later.
What the evidence says Two independent newspapers. Four identifications, each marked as ours.