The Banister Baptist Association built a private African American training school in 1827 with four wooden buildings and a dormitory. It met only six months of the year and went through ninth grade, and because transportation was difficult in a county as large as Halifax, it was primarily a boarding school. Board cost $200 a year, which was prohibitive for most Blacks at the time. In 1920 the four original buildings were torn down and a new building was erected to house African American high school students under the name Halifax Training School. Later it was upgraded and renamed Mary M. Bethune High School. By 1950 it was the state's largest rural high school for Blacks. Although it had no running water in science labs, little money for equipment and supplies, and no means of transportation, a national magazine reported that 27 of its 64 seniors went on to college, far above the national average of 20 percent at that time. In 1956, to meet "separate but equal" standards and stave off integration in the face of court decisions, the county erected the present building, officially named the Mary M. Bethune High School of Halifax County. Despite the county's efforts otherwise, the school became the hub of the local integration movement in 1969. After integration in 1970, it became a junior high school, and all county high school students, Black and white, began attending Halifax Senior High School. The original Mary M. Bethune High School building was later renovated and renamed the Mary M. Bethune Government Office Complex, which provides community services and houses the school system administration.