The Brookland-Lakeview Empowerment Center in West Columbia, South Carolina, serves children, teens, families and seniors with programs for seniors, youth sports and education, human services, health and wellness, food and workforce and business development. It occupies a formerly segregated African American school — the last one still standing in Lexington County — and is preserving that school's history.
The school's history
| When | |
|---|---|
| Early 1900s | founded in Brookland or New Brookland (now West Columbia) as the Brookland or New Brookland Colored School |
| Early 1930s | moves; later that decade it adds high school grades, becoming one of the first public Black high schools in the area |
| 1949 | moves into a new building on the same site; state equalization money then pays for new construction and additions |
| 1968 | Lakeview School, still segregated, closes as the district begins to integrate |
| The next year | the building reopens as Northside Middle School |
| 2024 | the center joins the African American Civil Rights Network |
Equalization was South Carolina's effort to preserve segregation by improving Black schools across the state — see the Park Service's article on South Carolina's equalization schools.
The African American Civil Rights Network
Created by the African American Civil Rights Act of 2017 and coordinated by the National Park Service, the Network recognizes the civil rights movement and those who fought discrimination and segregation, through public and private properties, facilities and programs.
Sources
Based on "Brookland-Lakeview Empowerment Center (West Columbia, South Carolina)," African American Civil Rights Network, National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain.
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.nps.gov
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