Community help needed to restore historic Black schoolhouse

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCSC) - The community is invited on Saturday to take part in the restoration process of the historic Long Point Schoolhouse.

The school was built in 1904 during the Jim Crow Era when schools were segregated.

After discovering materials from the 1800s, John Wright with the African American Settlement Community Historic Commission knew the building had to be restored.

The commission purchased land and moved the building about a mile from its original location.

Wright says the commission and students who attended the school have been all hands on deck to restore it and this community clean-up is the next step in order to move the restoration process forward.

Once restored, the building will be for public use and Wright says he wants the community to have had a hand in the different phases of the process.

Reverend Arthur Pinckney, Henry Palmer and Joseph Palmer all attended Long Point Schoolhouse as kids. The former students shared they are doing their best to preserve the history within the building so the community can come to learn about their stories.

“These gentlemen all agree with me that we own the structure, we own the land, so we are going to tell the story as we deem it necessary,” Wright says.

Reverend Arthur Pinckney says he ultimately wants his grandchildren and those who will come after him to know this is where Black people in the south started from.

“We’ve got to keep the history alive so someone can say there’s a force out there. If you’re not sure you’re doing what you should to keep yourself free and wanting to be educated, then you may lose all of what we’ve done,” Pinckney says.

The community cleanup is Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon at 1578 Snowden Rd in Mount Pleasant.

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