Watch: Organizers to open renovated former Black school in March

Construction of the E.M. Brown Community Center in Minter, Alabama, is in the final phase and should be completed in mid March. The center replaces but honors the history of the former Street Manual Training School that once educated the community's Black students. It opened in 1904 with 18 students and closed in 1972 with 450 that were sent to integrated public schools. Board President Lionel Smith has led efforts to restore the campus and create a community center since 2015. Smith walked the grounds recently with Todd Prater of the Black Belt News Network to show progress being made on the new multi-purpose facility.