Students in Baptist Hill Elementary School, c. 1954 (image courtesy of Charleston County School District)
SCHOOL DISTRICT SEEKS HISTORY, STORIES OF 1950s SCHOOLS
Equalization School Story to be Told through Exhibit
COLUMBIA, SC: Charleston County School District built over thirty (30) schools in the 1950s as part of a massive statewide school construction program begun in 1951. As a response to Briggs v. Elliott, the school desegregation suit in Clarendon County, South Carolina passed its first general sales tax to build new schools for African Americans. Known as “Byrnes Schools,” “Separate but Equal Schools,” or “equalization schools,” the state built over 700 new schools in an effort to prove South Carolina’s commitment to segregated education. Both black and white students received new schools, although white schools were not constructed until new African American schools opened for use.
Many of Charleston County’s equalization schools will be demolished and rebuilt as part of the current capital improvement plan for the school district. To ensure that the history and stories of these schools are not lost, the School District has partnered with the South Carolina State Historic Preservation Office to develop and install an outdoor exhibit on Charleston’s equalization schools. This exhibit will be at the historic Courtenay Elementary School (now Charleston Progressive Academy), built in 1955 as part of the equalization program. In April 2012, we will be collecting photographs, stories, and other documents about Charleston’s equalization schools that will inform and guide this exhibit.
To provide history, stories, photographs, or other information, contact Rebekah Dobrasko with the State Historic Preservation Office at 803-896-6183 or dobrasko@scdah.state.sc.us.
Charleston County Plans Historic Public Exhibit on Equalization Schools
Mount Pleasant Residents Recount Memories of Segregation
Equalization School Story to be Told through Exhibit
COLUMBIA, SC: Charleston County School District built over thirty (30) schools in the 1950s as part of a massive statewide school construction program begun in 1951. As a response to Briggs v. Elliott, the school desegregation suit in Clarendon County, South Carolina passed its first general sales tax to build new schools for African Americans. Known as “Byrnes Schools,” “Separate but Equal Schools,” or “equalization schools,” the state built over 700 new schools in an effort to prove South Carolina’s commitment to segregated education. Both black and white students received new schools, although white schools were not constructed until new African American schools opened for use.
Many of Charleston County’s equalization schools will be demolished and rebuilt as part of the current capital improvement plan for the school district. To ensure that the history and stories of these schools are not lost, the School District has partnered with the South Carolina State Historic Preservation Office to develop and install an outdoor exhibit on Charleston’s equalization schools. This exhibit will be at the historic Courtenay Elementary School (now Charleston Progressive Academy), built in 1955 as part of the equalization program. In April 2012, we will be collecting photographs, stories, and other documents about Charleston’s equalization schools that will inform and guide this exhibit.
To provide history, stories, photographs, or other information, contact Rebekah Dobrasko with the State Historic Preservation Office at 803-896-6183 or dobrasko@scdah.state.sc.us.
Charleston County Plans Historic Public Exhibit on Equalization Schools
Mount Pleasant Residents Recount Memories of Segregation
