Aiken Graded School was a two-story brick school built in 1924-25 for black pupils in grades 1-7 and was one of almost 500 South Carolina schools funded in part by the Julius Rosenwald Foundation from 1917 to 1932. Black Aiken physician Dr. C.C. Johnson raised $3,500 in the black community toward the total cost of $33,500, and black brick mason Elliott Ball supervised the school’s construction. Described as “one of the best in the state” when it was being built, the school had ten classrooms, a library, and an auditorium seating 600. It opened in the fall of 1925 with principal W.D. Drake, nine teachers, and almost 300 students. The only black elementary school in Aiken until new schools began to be built in 1954, it closed in 1969 and was demolished in 1973.

Photo: Tom Bosse

Photo: Tom Bosse

Aiken, South Carolina · USA