City: Fort Walton Beach   County: Okaloosa   Year: 2024
Location: 111 McGriff St NE

In 1938, members of Beulah Baptist Church established the only school for Black students in Fort Walton Beach. For many years, due to racial segregation, classes were held in private homes and later within the church. In 1952, Fort Walton Beach Mayor Tom Brooks donated land adjacent to the church for a public school for Black students. The Okaloosa County School Board erected a two-room building, naming it Brooks School in his honor. In its early years, Brooks School was led by its first teachers: Bessie Corbit and Charlie H. Hill. Hill also served as its first principal. Over the years, many respected Black educators from across the county contributed to the school, impacting the lives of countless students. By 1954, as the school board consolidated Black high schools in Okaloosa County, Brooks School was reorganized into Brooks Elementary School to serve younger children. Meanwhile, junior high and high school students were transferred to the newly opened Carver-Hill High School in Crestview, commuting over sixty miles each day by bus until W. E. Combs High School was established in Fort Walton Beach in 1962. Brooks Elementary School closed in 1968, when the county's public schools were fully integrated.