The Rosenwald Foundation in 1930 issued a grant to pay for a new school for Springfield’s Negro students and a two-story redbrick school was dedicated on May 21, 1931. When it opened, teachers led students in a parade on Central Street to the new Lincoln School. Once there, students sang “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” The new school had 15 rooms, including a gymnasium, mechanical arts shop, domestic science room and a library.

Lincoln School, described in the local newspaper as “one of the best equipped Negro schools in the state,” was a community school. Teachers, administrators and parents sponsored scout troops; a community library and child care center; as well as held dances, plays, concerts, talent contests and fashion shows. When Springfield public schools integrated in 1954, Lincoln School became Eastwood Junior High school. It is now Lincoln Hall on the Ozarks Technical Community College campus.