Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to Use

No usage restrictions.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Willa Cofield Brick School Collection #05745, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Willa Cofield in May 2017 (Acc. 103067).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Nancy Kaiser and Biff Hollingsworth, October 2017

Encoded by: Nancy Kaiser, October 2017

Updated by: Dawne Lucas, July 2024

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• African Americans--Education--North Carolina.
• American Missionary Association.
• Brick Junior College.
• Cofield, Willa.
• Edgecombe County (N.C.)--History.
• Joseph Keasbey Brick Agricultural, Industrial, and Normal School.
• Schools--North Carolina.

The Brick School, also known as the Joseph Keasbey Brick Agricultural, Domestic, and Normal School and later as Brick Junior College, was founded in 1895 by the American Missionary Association (AMA) near Enfield in Edgecombe County, N.C. Mrs.(Julia) Joseph Keasbey Brewster Brick of Brooklyn, N.Y., donated 1,129 acres of farm land to build the school, which was just one of many the AMA started for African American children and teachers during the last half of the 19th century.

Thomas Sewell Inborden, the first principal, instituted a holistic educational program that developed students' abilities in the traditional liberal arts as well as trades, such as carpentry, agriculture, and domestic science. Brick School also was a working farm and students were required to contribute to the care of crops and livestock, the dining hall, and laundry; some worked extra hours to reduce their tuition.

The Brick School opened as a primary school with one student on the first day. By the end of the school year it had enrolled 54 boarding and day students. Brick School later developed a program for high school and in 1926 became a junior college. The highest enrollment for any one year was 460 students, over half of whom were boarders in dormitories. Many graduates went on to attend other AMA schools, including Howard University, Fisk University, and Oberlin College and became teachers, physicians, and farmers.

The Great Depression reduced financial donations and made it more difficult for students to pay tuition, requiring the school to close in 1933. The land and two extant buildings are now part of the Franklinton Center at Bricks.

The Willa Cofield Brick School Collection, 1895-1990s, contains papers, photographs, and audiovisual materials documenting the history of the Joseph Keasbey Brick Agricultural, Domestic, and Normal School, later renamed Brick Junior College, founded by the American Missionary Association near Enfield in Edgecombe County, N.C. The Brick School educated African American students in both traditional liberal arts and trade curriculums. Included are lists of students; images of students and buildings; printed materials; published and unpublished histories of the school, including Willa Cofield's "A Guide to Teaching the History of Brick School" and a history written by the school's first principal, Thomas S. Inborden; interviews with alumni and their children about daily life at school; and other materials that relate to Cofield's Brick School history project.

• Videotapes (VT-05745/1-43)
• Photographs (IB-05745/1)
• Audiocassettes (C-05745/1-9)