Scott's Branch High School
National Register Listing
Street Address:
1102 4th Street, Summerton vicinity, SC (Clarendon County)
Alternate Name:
Clarendon School District Community Resource Center
NRHP Nomination
Record Number:
S10817714010
Description and Narrative:
Scott’s Branch High School is a collection of Modern brick public school buildings located just outside the town limits of Summerton, South Carolina. The existing campus was originally built from 1951 through 1954 as part of South Carolina equalization program, a massive statewide effort to modernize African American schools in response to Briggs v. Elliott, a Summerton-based federal court case challenging school segregation. The plans for the new Scott’s Branch High School were designed by the architecture firm of James and DuRant, and the buildings are typical of the Modernist designs often used for equalization school architecture. In 1971, a two-story classroom building with an attached one-story media center was constructed just north of the main school. The school underwent two phases of renovations and repairs, first in 1987 and again in 1994. While the property has undergone some changes—most notably, the replacement of part of the main school’s original flat roof with a hipped roof, and the infilling of windows—such alterations are typical of equalization-funded schools in South Carolina and do not undermine the property’s ability to convey its original use as a mid-century segregated school. Scott’s Branch High School has national and statewide significance due to its association with the federal court case Briggs v. Elliott and the establishment of South Carolina’s equalization school program. Briggs was originally filed by African American activists in Summerton, South Carolina and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) protesting the unequal and segregated schools of the Summerton public school district. The case marked the first time that the NAACP directly challenged the constitutionality of segregation rather than simply push public officials to ensure that separate schools were in fact equal. The case was the first of five school segregation cases to reach the United States Supreme Court that were ultimately decided in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which held that segregated schooling was unconstitutional. Reacting to the Briggs case, in 1951 state officials embarked on a massive campaign of new school construction to “equalize” South Carolina’s Black and white public schools and shore up the legality of “separate but equal.” Because of Clarendon County’s direct ties to the Briggs case, the state prioritized funding for its public schools, with the nominated Scott’s Branch High School being the first school in the county to be completed through the program. The school is also locally significant for its years of service for Summerton-area African Americans as an officially segregated school; the integration and subsequent white abandonment of local schools in 1970; and a renewal of local Black education activism that resulted in the 1971 construction of the classroom building and media center. Listed in the National Register May 26, 2023.
Period of Significance:
1951 – 1971
Level of Significance:
National;State;Local
Area of Significance:
Education;Ethnic Heritage: Black;Social History
National Register Determination:
listed
Date of Certification:
May 26 2023
