Tomlinson School

Front: Formerly enslaved African Americans built the first Tomlinson School in 1866. Overseen by the Freedmen’s Bureau, it was the first Black public school in Williamsburg County. Tomlinson School was located at this site by 1924, when it moved into a new 2-story facility funded by the school district, the Julius Rosenwald Fund, and local African Americans, whose contributions allowed for the constriction of a brick rather than wood frame school building. Reverse: For decades, Tomlinson High and Graded School was the center of Black education in Williamsburg County. A white brick high school and library building opened in 1935. It was later demolished. A gymnatorium was added in 1941 and burned in 1994. Major additions were made c.1954 with funding from the S.C. equalization program, which upgraded Black schools to preserve segregation. Tomlinson closed in 1970 as part of the integration of Williamsburg Co. schools.