• 1910 Construction of school is completed

    1911 January 3, the school opens with 375 African American students

    1919 A legislative act allows the faculty and principal to be replaced with African    
            Americans

    1921 Board member James E. Burke dies and school is renamed Burke Industrial School in
            his honor

    1923 First 11th grade class graduates

    1930s Athletics begin

    1938 Football team wins its 1st lower and state championship

    1940s A band and 250 voice choir were begun

    1946 The faculty receive pay equal to that of their white counterparts
             WWII veterans enroll at Burke

    1948 First 12th grade class graduates

    1949 School receives "A" rating by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools;
            enrollment 1,827

    1951 Modie Risher coaches first baseball team

    1953 50 Korean War veterans enroll at Burke

    1954 Burke enrollment nears 2000

    1960s Approximately 24 students arrested in lunch counter desegregation/ civil rights
             protests

    1963  Former student Harvey Gannt 1st African American to integrate Clemson University,
             Delano Meriwether 1st African American to enter Duke Medical University

    1966 School granted charter to establish chapter of Modern Music Masters

    1969 Adult trade classes begin

    1970 School offers vocational, general, and college preparation tracts

    1971 Bernard Deas 1st African American to graduate from the Medical University School
            of Medicine

    1972 Students walk out in protest over poor physical condition of school

    1976 Basketball team wins boys 4A state championship and John Wilford names SC High 
            School Coach of the Year

    1979 Gymnastics team created

    1984 Basketball team wins boys 4A state championship; 1700 students; cafeteria that seats
            250

    1988 Charleston County Magnet School placed at Burke

    1993 1st school in SC to have campus-based health clinic

    1994 Vocational studies program shut down despite protest

    1996 Academic Magnet High School leaves Burke

    2000 Curriculum reorganized and generalized

    2002 Construction begins on new facility

    2005 New gym named in honor of Modie Risher; new Burke school (designed by former
            student, Harvey Gannt) dedicated

    2006 Charles Benton becomes principal

    2010 Burke's centennial anniversary; enrollment 614

    * Taken from 2010 Burke High School Yearbook