The Bricks Museum and Library offers a collection of historical documents that include photographs, paintings, artifacts, journals, materials, and books from the many lives of this important site. These include an early 20th century post office which served the schools and the local Black community.
Nestled in rural Eastern North Carolina, at the intersection of Edgcombe, Nash, and Halifax Counties in Whitakers, the Franklinton Center at Bricks sits on land that was once under the care of the Tuscarora Nation of North Carolina. The land, fertile and rich, suffered through the history of systemic oppression of people: both the indigenous and those of African descent, who were forced to serve the plantation as an enslaved people.
But that is not the end of the story.
This land was transformed in 1895 into the Joseph Keasby Brick Agricultural, Industrial and Normal School an accredited school, educating African Americans. By 1933, the school had grown into the Brick Junior College.
In 1933, the land begun to house the Brick Tri-County Public School, which some say served as the parent the public school education of African American students in Edgecombe, Nash, and Halifax Counties. The Brick Tri-County Public School became the feeder school to what was Philips, Inborden, and Swift Creek High Schools.
During that same time period, the Brick Rural Life School began the process of training community members in the Art of Farming, helping to shift the tide for African Americans away from sharecropping. Black Land ownership in the community surrounding Bricks begins during this time with the sale of land to families, some, coming out of the Brick Rural Life School.
Today, Franklinton Center at Bricks serves the local, national, and international community as a Social Justice Conference & Retreat Center where leaders can be trained, educated, practice and celebrate liberation. Our local community partnerships and relationships are able to use these opportunities, which often lead to our local programs.
The site hosts scheduled guided history tours. A self motivated & guided tour is possible, information is available under the awning of Hospitality House 2.
Donations are welcome.