Governor Morehead School (GMS), formerly North Carolina State School for the Blind and Deaf, is a K–12 public school for the blind in Raleigh, North Carolina. In the era of de jure educational segregation in the United States, it served blind people of all races and deaf black people.
Its namesake is John Motley Morehead, Governor of North Carolina.
History
In 1845 the school was established; it took ages 5–21. It served African-American students from the beginning, in separate facilities under educational segregation in the United States. In 1898 a dormitory for the school was built by Frank Pierce Milburn.
It was the first American school to educate black, blind, and deaf students.
In 1923 white students moved to its current site in Raleigh, while black students were on the original campus, in Garner. The school took both deaf and blind black students.
In 1964 it got its current name. In 1966 the U.S. federal authorities were withholding $89,927 aid in Title I funds as the school had not yet desegregated. In 1967, as part of racial desegregation, the school began swapping the racial groups across the campuses. Black deaf students were to be moved to the North Carolina School for the Deaf and the East North Carolina School for the Deaf, so Morehead became a blind-only school. In 1977 desegregation was completed.
In 2014 there were discussions over whether the City of Raleigh should buy land that included GMS property. The property concerned included a field, unused, with of land total. In 2014 the City of Raleigh offered to buy the Dorothea Dix property and the Morehead field for $51.26 million. The North Carolina House of Representatives approved a bill allowing the sale.
Campus
The school has dormitory facilities.
The campus hosts grades 6–10 of the Wake County Public Schools institution Wake Young Women's Leadership Academy.
It is adjacent to Central Prison.
Student body
about 66% board.