Kennedy-Jenkins Hill High School

Front inscription

Kennedy High School opened at this site in 1954-55. It served Black families from Dorchester Co. School District No. 3 (Harleyville-Ridgeville). About 700 students in grades 1-12 attended the first year. The brick facility cost around $300,000 and had over twenty classrooms plus a library, athletic field, and gym. It was built through the state equalization program, which upgraded Black schools in order to defend segregation.

Reverse inscription

The school was named after its first principal, John B. Kennedy Jr. It was renamed Jenkins Hill High School upon the 1964 death of David A. Jenkins, the longtime principal of an older Jenkins Hill School that stood nearby before being replaced by the equalization school. Jenkins Hill became a middle school in 1970-71 as part of integration. It was later an elementary school and was demolished in the 2000s.