On June 27, residents and guests of the Burgess community joined together to pay tribute to educational history by marking the original site of the St. James Rosenwald School with a South Carolina Historical Marker. This school was one of over 5,000 Rosenwald Schools built primarily for the education of African Americans in the early twentieth century through the philanthropy of Julius Rosenwald. It was completed by 1929 on the property where the Burgess Community Center is located on Highway 707. Burgess is an unincorporated community in Horry County along Highway 707 between Socastee and Murrells Inlet.

Rosenwald, an American clothier who became part-owner and president of Sears, Roebuck and Company, contributed seed money for many of the schools and required communities to commit public funds to the schools. Millions of dollars were raised by African-American rural communities across the South to fund better education for their children.

The historical tribute to the St. James Rosenwald School was presented by the Burgess Organization for the Advancement of Young People. Inc., the Burgess Community Hall of Fame, and the Greater Burgess Community Association.

Would you like to take a history tour of public schools? The South Carolina Department of Archives and History has some insurance file photographs of public schools taken between 1935 and 1952 available at http://www.nationalregister.sc.gov/schools/S112113000002659000/index.htm. Many of these buildings are long gone and some of the communities are no longer on current maps. If you have information or stories you would like to share about the early schools of Horry County, email us at pi@horrycountyschools.net.

Photo from the S.C. Department of Archives and History