A list: The 1950s and State School Building Authority

Burgess Landrum, now known as Jenkins County Elementary, was built in Millen under the State School Building Authority. It opened in 1956.

This is a list, as best is currently researched, as to what was built during the 1950s by the State School Building Authority.

The list is a complicated one. Some locally funded building projects are included, but only if they were built at the same time as the rest of the State School Building Authority projects. That means that Eastside Elementary, which opened in 1951 in Lumpkin County, is not credited as Lumpkin County’s building program completed in 1957.  Lavonia’s black elementary is included as it was part of the larger Franklin County program.

Schools with an asterisk are buildings that were proposed, but unproven as to whether they actually went up.

Not all systems have been researched, or in the case of some, such as Bryan County, information about the building program has not been found.

NEW SCHOOLS OR MAJOR ADDITIONS

Advertisement

Brewton school saga, Part III: Albatross

Dr. B.D. Perry school opened in 1958 in Laurens County, six years after Laurens County’s school building program began. It opened two years after black students in eastern Laurens County were denied use of Brewton School.

Brewton School had been a white school building, but Laurens officials with state approval planned on remodeling it and enlarging it for use by black students. Brewton’s white students were going to be abandoning the building for the new East Laurens High, an all-grades building that opened in April 1956.

Despite Brewton’s updates being 90 percent complete, builders were forced to stop. Part of one wing was being built on private property. Local Brewtonians, who admitted they did not want black students in that school, now had their wish.