Susie G. Gibson High School

Susie G. Gibson (1878-1949), teacher and community activist, was Bedford County’s supervisor of African American education for 22 years. Her work was sponsored by the Jeanes Fund, established in 1907 to enhance opportunities for Black students in the rural South. Susie G. Gibson High School opened just northeast of here in 1954 to serve African Americans in Bedford, Town and County. Designed by architect Stanhope Johnson, the school reflected an effort to equalize educational facilities rather than desegregate them. Gibson’s name was dropped in 1970, when the U.S. government required county schools to desegregate fully. In 2020, the building became the Susie G. Gibson Science & Technology Center.