In the early 1920s, African Americans Joseph Worley, Andrew Polk, and Finn Wray, together with the community and city and county governments, secured funds to build the "Mt. Pleasant Colored School." A Rosenwald facility, it was later named in honor of Dr. C. Y. Clarke, who played a vital role in its establishment. In 1962, the school's name changed to Clarke Elementary and High School, and its last class graduated in 1969 before the school closed due to racial desegregation.