Roanoke Rapids High School opened in 1921. It was the brainchild of local industrialist Samuel Paterson and was intended to be the centerpiece of the entire Roanoke Rapids community. The school was designed by Hobart Upjohn and cost ten times the average high school building in the state. It is in the Tudor Revival or Gothic style and draws qualities of the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is a 3+1⁄2-story, nine-bay, T-shaped building with a combination flat-top and slate gable roof and a projecting, crenellated entrance tower.[3][4]
The school's colors are black and gold. Its mascot is the Yellow Jacket. The school uses a logo similar to that of Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets were the Class B, Baseball State Champions in 1932 and 1935.[5][6] Roanoke Rapids High School competes in the North Carolina High School Athletic Association in the 2A class. They have football, baseball, softball, swimming, wrestling, volleyball, track and field, cross country, soccer, basketball, tennis, golf, and cheerleading programs.
^Lauren-Brook Taves and Maurice C. York (August 1988). "Roanoke Rapids Junior-Senior High School"(PDF). National Register of Historic Places - Nomination and Inventory. North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. Retrieved November 1, 2014.