| Brewer Normal Institute | |
| Location: | Greenwood, South Carolina, U.S. |
| Coordinates: | 34.1976°N -82.1425°W |
| Former Name: | Brewer Institute, Brewer School, Brewer Normal School |
| Type: | Private |
| Established: | 1872 |
| Closed: | June 1970 |
| Affiliation: | American Missionary Association |
Brewer Normal Institute (1872–1970)[1] was a segregated private school for African-Americans in Greenwood, South Carolina. It was named after Reverend Josiah Brewer, a member of the first board of trustees for Brewer.[2] After desegregation in 1970, it was succeeded by a public magnet intermediate school named Brewer Middle School.[3] Originally named Brewer Institute, and later became Brewer School, and Brewer Normal School.
The American Missionary Association (AMA) opened Brewer Normal Institute in 1872 as a boarding school on East Cambridge Street.[4] [5] The first brick building had been built in 1847 for the former Hodges Institute.[6] It was one of a series of schools established by the AMA during the Reconstruction era, after the American Civil War.[7]
During Brewer Normal Institute's first year, the school had only one teacher. It was named for Rev. Josiah Brewer (1796–1872), a minister, and missionary, and member of the school's first board of trustees. Brewer's son, became a principal at the school. By 1897, the school had an enrollment of 280 students and seven teachers, and it was both a boarding and day school.
The AMA, alongside the black and white community in Greenwood built the Brewer Hospital in hopes of fostering community integration and work towards opening a black public school. The hospital was dedicated on May 24, 1924. The following year in 1925, Brewer Normal Institute became a public school.[8] [9]
From 1945 to 1969, Benjamin James Sanders Jr. served as the school’s principal; he had been initially hired a science teacher starting in 1928.
The New York Public Library has a 1909 photograph in their archives of Brewer Normal Institute students picking cotton at the school farm.[10] In 2021, the Museum of Greenwoood was organizing an exhibit on the school's history.[11] The Emerald Triangle Museum & Rail Center exhibit included photographs and yearbook page from the school as well as images of the hospital.[12]
The South Carolina legislature passed a 2002 resolution declaring the school site a historic landmark.[13] [14]