Brooks County, Georgia

<databox_county/>

School district history

Brooks County High School opened in 1959[1], a consolidation of county high schools at Morven, Dixie and Barwick with the city high school of Quitman. Washington Street completed integration with Brooks County in 1970 and closed as a high school.

World War II's need for austerity caused the first major closure in the system. After winning two consecutive boys Class C state basketball titles, Barney High School closed just prior to the start of the 1944-45 school year[2]. Its high school students were sent to Morven. South Side (or Southside), which included some high school grades, had its high schoolers sent to Quitman[3]. Dixie was allowed to maintain its high school at that time, but had to discontinue vocational agriculture and home economics courses.

Brooks and Quitman city systems began moving forward after school surveys in 1952[4]. There was no plan for Quitman to merge its system with Brooks, so the two had separate school building plans approved by the State School Building Authority. Brooks County was approved to build a black county high school near what was then Brooks High in Quitman[5]. These plans would have consolidated black high schools Morven Rosenwald and Brooks County Training, the latter being located in the community of Simmon Hill. White county plans were to build a new high school just outside the city limits[6], combining high schools at Morven, Barwick and Dixie. Dixie previously considered consolidating with Quitman in 1949, but neither side felt they were ready[7].

Quitman considered merging with Brooks County's school system in 1954[8][9], but no progress was made. When the sides could not agree on representation on a new school board in late 1956, the merger was dropped[10].

During the impasse on the merger, a new city high school for African-American students was completed for Quitman in time for the 1955-56 school year[11]. The new school, which took on the name Washington Street[12], had been a necessity since a portion of the Brooks school had burned in 1952.

Until late January 1959, it seemed that Brooks would have two white high schools and two black high schools. Quitman's stance softened towards consolidation and a merger of the two school systems passed in a straw ballot taken on January 16[13]. A contract for the merger went into effect in March[14] and on August 31, the new consolidated high schools opened[15].

The merger not only meant that Brooks County and Quitman high school students combined, but also that the city and county combined black high schools. The new African-American county high school was built "on property adjoining the new Washington Street School," [16], which made it easy to combine student populations.

In addition to the new high schools, Brooks County built new black elementary schools at Brooks County Training[17] and Morven[18]. Before the state did its work building schools, Brooks County had erected an elementary school in the Empress community, which probably opened for the 1953-54 school year[19]. Consolidations brought about by the construction of new schools allowed Brooks to lower its number of county black schools from 47 in January 1949[20] and 37 in 1950[21] to four in 1960[22].

Upon the total integration and closure of Washington Street High School in 1970, Brooks County changed its nickname from Tigers to Trojans.

High school football history

Programs

<county_school_list/>

Notable coaches

Notable teams

Notable players

References

  1. ↑ The Quitman Free Press, Sept. 3, 1959
  2. ↑ The Quitman Free Press, Aug. 31, 1944
  3. ↑ The Quitman Free Press, Aug. 31, 1944
  4. ↑ The Quitman Free Press, Sept. 25, 1952
  5. ↑ The Quitman Free Press, Jan. 28, 1954
  6. ↑ The Quitman Free Press, Jan. 28, 1954
  7. ↑ The Quitman Free Press, April 21, 1949
  8. ↑ The Quitman Free Press, Feb. 11, 1954
  9. ↑ The Quitman Free Press, March 18, 1954
  10. ↑ The Quitman Free Press, Nov. 29, 1956
  11. ↑ The Quitman Free Press, Aug. 4, 1955
  12. ↑ The Quitman Free Press, Feb. 10, 1955
  13. ↑ The Quitman Free Press, Jan. 22, 1959
  14. ↑ The Quitman Free Press, March 19, 1959
  15. ↑ The Quitman Free Press, Sept. 3, 1959
  16. ↑ The Quitman Free Press, Jan. 16, 1958
  17. ↑ The Quitman Free Press, Sept. 3, 1959
  18. ↑ The Quitman Free Press, Jan. 16, 1958
  19. ↑ The Quitman Free Press, Jan. 28, 1954
  20. ↑ The Quitman Free Press, Jan. 6, 1949
  21. ↑ Seventy-Eighth and Seventy-Ninth Annual Reports of the Department of Education to the General Assembly to the State of Georgia
  22. ↑ Report on Georgia Schools (1960 edition)
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