Booker T. Washington High School Building

Booker T. Washington High School was the largest school in the Secondary School Study and, within the project, represented an urban high school with 45 teachers serving approximately 1,200 pupils in grades 7-11. Booker T. Washington High School was an original institutional member of the ACSSN, entering the organization in 1934, while having received regional accreditation in 1933.

Booker T. Washington school was founded in 1916. With the opening of Booker T. Washington, the Howard School, the first public African American  school in the area, would close. [Principal Simmons noted that the Howard School’s attendance in 1868 rose to 600 students (1936, p. 4).] Constructed during 1916-1917, Booker T. Washington school classes began during the autumn of 1917. The secondary school grades would be added in 1918. By 1943, the multi-building school complex was the largest comprehensive black high school in the state and functioned as a 1–12 school until its closing in 1974.

Fannie Phelps Adams Classroom
University of South Carolina purchased the school land in 1974 and demolished all of the buildings except the Booker T. Washington auditorium building. Within this structure, University of South Carolina and the B. T. Washington High School Foundation have created the Fannie Phelps Adams Classroom.

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Booker T. Washington High School, SC