LAURINBURG, N.C. – The Laurinburg Institute, the oldest historically Black prep school in the country, is a shell of its former self these days. The tennis court has no net and is over-run with weeds. Behind it, a two-story dormitory sits forlornly, still unrepaired after an arsonist’s fire some years ago.
Also boarded up is the school’s gymnasium, which has produced such NBA stars as Sam Jones, Charlie Scott and Charlie Davis. Although the gym was condemned in the late 1990s after moisture caused part of the roof to fall in, the school still maintains its prestige in prep hoops.
“We play where we can, at the public park courts or elsewhere,” says Laurinburg coach Napoleon Cooper. As such, it has placed more than 30 players on Division I teams in the past decade.
But a recent NCAA ruling is threatening to end that record. Last year, NCAA officials declared the school “not cleared” after a review of its academics and curriculum during the 2006-07 and 2007-08 school years. The designation means that Laurinburg graduates are not eligible for initial eligibility in intercollegiate athletics or for consideration for scholarships.
The ruling is yet another blow to Laurinburg Institute, known colloquially as “the Tute.” The school had 2,300 students in the early 20th century but the number has dropped to about 35, including seven due to graduate this year, according to Frank “Bishop” McDuffie Jr., the headmaster, whose grandparents founded the school at the behest of Booker T. Washington in this small North Carolina town in 1904.
McDuffie says the decline began in 1954 when the Supreme Court overturned segregation. The impact on Laurinburg was immediate. Although the school built a new 13-building campus in 1954, it started losing support to newly integrated public schools. “No one saw the need for an all-Black preparatory school anymore,” says McDuffie.
The NCAA probe, however, has significantly affected the school’s immediate ability to attract students and raise the $11 million it needs for campus repairs. In 2006, the year the probe began, the school, which charges $16,000 in tuition, reported revenue of $146,734, according to tax records it filed as a nonprofit institution. By 2008, records show, revenue dropped to $63,162.
