Burke High School

In 1911, the Charleston Colored Industrial School opened its doors to 375 African American boys and girls, making it the first public high school for

African Americans in the city of Charleston. Throughout the years, there have been several public high schools in the city that educated African

American students. However, they all have closed, and Burke High School (formerly the Charleston Colored Industrial School) is the only public high school in the city that provides an education for children living on the Peninsula. This book explores the rich and unique history of the school from 1894 to 2006 and provides another perspective on the subject of education and African Americans in Charleston during 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.

Sherman E. Pyatt is a 1970 graduate of the school. He received his B.A. degree from Johnson C. Smith University and an M.L.S. from Indiana University. He is currently an archivist at the Avery Research Center at the College of Charleston, and he served as a reference librarian and interim library director at the Citadel Military College. Pyatt's other works include Martin Luther King, Jr.: An Annotated Bibliography, 1986; Apartheid: A Selective Annotated Bibliography, 1979-1987, 1990; A Dictionary and Catalog of African American Folklife of the South, 1999; and Black America: Charleston, 2000.