Booker T. Washington High School
Booker T. Washington High School was the first African American secondary school built in Atlanta during the 1920s. The school still stands today and is located at 45 Whitehouse Drive, Southwest, Atlanta, Georgia, 30314. The school is named after one of the most famous black leaders and educators in the United States, Booker T. Washington. Washington was born as a slave in Virginia during the 19th century. He is most famous for his advocacy of black accomodation during the segregation period in the south and for founding the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama (Rawley). Similar to Turner High School, Washington High School has produced many noteworthy alumni, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Leroy Johnson. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is one of America’s most famous civil rights activist. As a child, Dr. King became fascinated over ministry congregations and dreamed of being a great speaker. His drive and excellency led him to skip two grades at Booker T. Washington High School and to enter Morehouse College at the age of fifteen (Peake). Leroy Johnson was a prominent attorney and advisor to the Atlanta civil rights movement in the 1960s. In 1962, he became the first African American to be elected to the Georgia General Assembly since the end of the Reconstruction era (Crawford). Black Atlantans were happy to simply have a high school for their children following the creating of Washington High, but the school was wildly inadequate for their needs. The building housed far more students than it should have, bringing in kids from as far as Marietta. In 1935, it was found that the school had 6,000 students even though its maximum was 2,000.
Bibliography
Crawford, Tom. "Leroy Johnson (b. 1928)." New Georgia Encyclopedia. 09 July 2018. Web. 08 November 2018.
Peake, Thomas R. “Martin Luther King, Jr.” Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia, 2013. EBSCOhost, proxy-remote.galib.uga.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ers&AN=88801983&site=eds-live.
Rawley, James A. “Booker T. Washington.” Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia, 2013. EBSCOhost, proxy-remote.galib.uga.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ers&AN=88806912&site=eds-live.