South Carolina's Equalization Schools

1951-1960
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Charleston County School District Seeking Input for Equalization School Exhibit.
For more information, see the Charleston Exhibit page.
 
 
 
See over 1,000 photographs of equalization schools on Flickr! 
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See us on SCIway, the largest collection of South Carolina information and photographs on the internet!
 
 
 Map courtesy South Carolina State Library
 

 

 Photograph courtesy Rebekah Dobrasko (2011)

 

 

Lincoln High School, Greenville County

Photograph courtesy Rebekah Dobrasko (2008)

 In 1951, South Carolina passed its first general sales tax in order to fund African American school construction.  This attempt was to create "separate but equal" schools to forestall an order by the Supreme Court requiring desegregation of the state's public schools.
 
While this program ultimately did not succeed in creating truly "separate but equal" educational facilities for black students,
the program did transform the architecture of education in South Carolina.
 
South Carolina spent almost $100 million on black school construction in the first 6 years of the program.  Prior to 1951, the state had only 80 accredited high schools for African American students.  By 1957, the state had 145 black high schools.