Loris Training School

Front: Loris Training School, which stood here from 1928 to 1955, was the first school for black students in Loris and other nearby communities. Built at a cost of $4,700, it was one of more than 5000 schools in the South funded in part by the Julius Rosenwald Foundation between 1917 and 1932. William P. Johnson, Sr. (1910-2007), the first principal once it became a public school, led Loris Training School 1931-1941. Reverse: The Loris Training School opened in 1928 with grades 1-7 and a six-month term, but William P. Johnson eventually won approval for a nine-month term and for adding grades 8-11. George C. Cooper (1915-1991) was principal here from 1941 until the school closed in 1955. Its students were transferred to the Finklea Consolidated High School, with Cooper as principal there until it closed with desegregation in 1970.