Historic, all-Black Midlands schools receive civil rights funding to preserve legacies

For decades, Midlands institutions educated the young minds of school-aged African American children while the world beyond the confines of their classroom were not as welcoming.

Now, their rich history of enduring despite segregation in the South will be preserved thanks to federal funding that will help elevate and keep their stories alive.

The National Park Association will be awarding nearly $3 million in African American Civil Rights Grants to seven projects across South Carolina — including two historic, formerly segregated all-Black schools in the Midlands.

Columbia’s Booker T. Washington High School Auditorium — part of the University of South Carolina campus — will get $500,000 in funding while West Columbia’s Brookland Lakeview Empowerment Center will get more than $300,000 for a roof replacement project.

Other South Carolina projects include the restoration of Edisto Island’s Historic Hutchinson House, preservation of Trinity United Methodist Church and the All-Star Bowling Lanes in Orangeburg County. In 1968, three African American students were shot and killed and more than two dozen injured at historically Black S.C. State University after state troopers fired at students protesting the segregated bowling alley. It is known today as the Orangeburg Massacre.

The grant’s website said the competitive program is funded by the Historic Preservation Fund and may be used in the planning, development and preservation of historic sites “related to the African American struggle to gain equal rights as citizens.” Federally recognized Indian tribes, Alaska natives, native Hawaiian organizations, nonprofit organizations, state and local governments are eligible to apply.

“Each of the projects funded in South Carolina tells the story of a different chapter in the struggle for racial equality in our state and our nation,” U.S. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-Columbia, said in a statement. “The preservation of these sites will help future generations learn from our complicated past and help us strive for a ‘more perfect union’ moving forward.”

The Booker T. Washington High School closed in 1974 after nearly six decades of educating African American students in the Columbia area. And after much of the building was demolished after being acquired by the University of South Carolina, all that remains of the historic school is the nearly 34,000-square-foot auditorium.

Last year, the former Lakeview School — its existence traced to the early 1900s — became the first historically segregated African American school to get a state marker in Lexington County. Though Lakeview’s doors closed in 1968 due to integration of public schools in South Carolina, the facility now serves as an empowerment center housing a museum, senior center, community food bank as well as hosting mentoring and athletic programs.

The African American Civil Rights Grant Program will award a combined $15 million to 53 projects across the country.