Bureau, the new school building was dedicated on May 7, 1868, and named the Avery Normal Institute. Cardozo quickly expanded the school’s mission beyond primary and secondary education to include teacher training. Prior to 1919, a citywide ordinance in Charleston prohibited African Americans from teaching in all but one of the city’s Black public schools. For this reason, many Avery graduates, such as Septima Clark, taught in one-room schoolhouses all over South Carolina, especially in the rural areas of the Lowcountry region surrounding Charleston. Subsequent Avery principals, such as Morrison A. Holmes, continued the school’s tradition of teacher training and classical education, though the instructors were white missionaries rather than local African Americans like the Cardozo brothers. In 1917, Avery helped establish the city’s branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The first Charleston NAACP president was noted artist Edwin Harleston (who graduated from Avery in 1900). Benjamin Cox served as principal from 1915 until 1936 and his wife, Jeanette Keeble Cox, revitalized the school by adding new facilities, new courses to the curriculum, and instituting a variety of cultural improvements such as theatrical plays and musical performances. Cox was the first Black principal at Avery since Cardozo. Subsequent Avery Principals Frank DeCosta (1936–1940) and L. Howard Bennett (1941–1943) moved the school in a more progressive direction. Principal John F. Potts presided over Avery’s transition to a public school in 1947. With the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision, Brown v. Board of Education, the county school board closed Avery Normal Institute and merged its students and faculty with Burke High School in 1954, citing financial reasons. The Avery Normal Institute prepared its students for professional careers and leadership roles. Avery students and teachers were often active in the state’s civil rights movement in the 1950s and 60s, even after the school closed. For example, Avery graduates who became prominent civil rights activists included Cecelia Cabaniss Saunders, Septima Clark, J. Andrew Simmons, John Henry McCray, John H. Wrighten, Jr., Arthur J. Clement, Jr., and J. Arthur Brown. Avery Institute for Afro-American History and Culture After 1954, Dr. John Palmer purchased the Avery buildings and operated Palmer Business College on the site for more than two decades, when the school moved to another downtown location. In 1978, a group of Avery graduates (known as “Averyites”) and friends of Avery organized The Avery Institute of Afro-American History and Culture.