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Booker T. Washington High School, the first high school in Houston open to African Americans, was founded in 1893 as Colored High School, and was located in the Fourth Ward on San Felipe Street (now West Dallas Street). It served as the only high school for African American students until Yates Colored High School (Now Jack Yates High School) opened in 1926. Charles H. Atherton was the school's firs principal, a position he held until 1912. Courses taught at the school include English, Latin, mathematics, science and history. By 1896, Wright Mungin completed the coursework necessary to become the first graduate of Colored High School. The colored branch of the Carnegie Library was opened to the public inside the school in May 1909, establishing Houston's first library accessible to African Americans. Wiley College in Marshall, Texas established an extension branch at Colored High in 1925 and moved it to Yates High after one year. Houston based successors evolved into Texas State University for Negroes in 1947, then Texas Southern University in 1951. A major campus renovation was completed in 1927, and in the same year the school was renamed in honor of African American Booker T. Washington, founder of Tuskegee Institute. Population shifts led to relocation of the school in 1959to a new campus at 39th and Yale Streets, in the historic African American Independence Heights community. During the process of integration Washington High School was awarded the Houston Independent School District's first Magnet program in 1974, and the "High School for Engineering Professions" continues today as an important part of the school's curriculum. (2010) |
