Brunswick County Training School - Southport, North Carolina
During segregation, Black students from the Leland area went to grade school in a two-room building through the eighth grade. From ninth grade, students were bused to Williston High School in Wilmington, Armour in Riegelwood or Brunswick County Training School, built in Southport in 1921.

Until Navassa's Lincoln High School was built in 1951, Brunswick County Training was the only Black high school in the county that went above the eighth grade. Any student in the county who wanted to go to high school attended here. Often students from outside Southport would stay with local African American families during the week in order to obtain their education. For BCT, the parent teacher association was the cornerstone of the school, and several Sundays a month, it organized fundraisers for school activities.

The school cost over $11,000 to build in 1924. Southport's African American community raised half the money. The rest was paid for by a combination of public funds, donations by the white community and a grant from the Rosenwald Foundation.

The first graduating class was in 1929. It consisted of one pupil, Bertha Bryant. Over the next forty-plus years, numerous students followed in Bertha’s footsteps. The final class graduated in 1972. Many BCT graduates went on to attend college and had distinguished careers in education, business, government, and the military.

Sources: Brunswick Co Tourism; Southport NC Historical Society; Chuck Carree/ StarNews Online