Chapter 6: “We’Re Your Sons and Daughters…Guide Us as We Go”: The Role of Harbison Junior College, Richlex School, and Their Communities in the Development of Cultural Capital

This chapter focuses on the history of South Carolina’s Harbison Junior College and Richlex School, the schools’ relationships with the communities they served, as well as the forms of cultural capital produced by the two schools, their students, and their communities. Both schools connected their students to essential resources and networks, created familial bonds among their students and faculty, developed cultural wealth with their students and community, and served as important centers of community activity. These topics are explored through an analysis of the narratives of Harbison and Richlex’s former students and teachers. While the stories of these students, educators, and schools are specific to the Chapin, Dutch Fork, and Irmo communities of South Carolina, they also reflect larger themes and trends in Black education during the segregated era and add depth to our understanding of the history of Black education in the South.