Sanford, North Carolina - The first well-documented school for Sanford's Black community was the South Sanford Graded School, an unpainted 2-story frame building on Washington Avenue.

Built in the early 1900s, the 5-room building offered classes for grades one through seven with a staff of six teachers. In 1924, a young educator named William Bartelle Wicker (lower left photo) was appointed its principal. Wicker was born in Sanford on Washington Avenue in 1896, and was educated at the South Sanford Graded School.

He worked as a farm hand, a coal miner, and a laborer for Link Boykin before pursuing a career in education.
After serving in World War I and earning a degree from Virginia Seminary and Normal School in Lynchburg, VA, Wicker taught for one year in Danville, before returning to Sanford to teach at South Sanford.

Along with serving as a principal and a teacher, Wicker established a high school curriculum at the South Sanford. He grew the high school program from 9 students in 1924 to 30 students in 1928.
Wicker envisioned a higher quality education for his students than the South Sanford Graded School was equipped to provide. He worked with his former boss Link Boykin to create the Lee County Training School.

When South Sanford Graded School closed in 1928, Wicker became the principal at Lee County Training School and his students comprised the new school's first class. An important note: North Carolina’s first public high school for Black students opened just 10 years before Lee County Training School opened. Wicker, Boykin, and their supporters were true pioneers.

The Lee County Training School was renamed after Wicker in 1954. When Wicker retired in 1964 (with B.T. Bullock taking the reins), the school boasted 1,000 students.
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Photos source: Courtesy the Lee County Libraries NC on DigitalNC.org.
Narrative source: City of Sanford, N.C