J.W. Randolph School

Around 1920 a Black civic organization petitioned for a proper school for the town's Black children. It was built in 1927 and 1928 for $24,000, with public money, private gifts and the Rosenwald Fund, and opened as the Harrison County Training School; in 1939 it took the name of a former principal, J. W. Randolph. When segregation ended in 1966 it became Pass Christian Middle School. Vacant after 2000, it was badly damaged by Katrina, and former students, activists and preservationists saved it from demolition. It was rededicated in 2013 and joined the National Register in 2025.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Ship Island and Fort Massachusetts — 18 mi
  A barrier island twelve miles off the Mississippi coast with a brick fort burned half-built in 1861, a Union prison camp, and the garrison post of the 2nd Louisiana Native Guard.
• INFINITY Science Center — 21 mi
  NASA's visitor center for Stennis Space Center, at the Mississippi welcome center near the Louisiana line, with a Saturn V booster outside and a story of five river towns that were moved.
• Biloxi Beach Wade-In Marker — 21 mi
  The beachfront parking lot beside the Biloxi Lighthouse where state markers recall the 1959 and 1960 wade-ins that opened Mississippi's public beaches to Black residents.
• Biloxi Lighthouse — 21 mi
  A cast-iron tower lit in 1848 on the Biloxi beachfront, kept by women for most of its first century and still in service after Camille and Katrina.

More markers nearby

• Our Mother of Mercy Catholic Church — 0.3 mi
• Dixie "White House" — 1.6 mi
• St. Stanislaus College — 4.8 mi
• Old Shieldsboro — 4.8 mi