History
In 1945, it was reported that educational facilities for blacks were "deplorable" and that the construction of a new high school would be one step toward improvement. This survey plus the over-crowded conditions at Central High School and Milam Street Trade School led to the construction of a new black high school on a site across from the trade school, completed in 1949, which became known as Booker T. Washington High School, named for the founder of Tuskegee Institute.
Milam Street Trade School became a junior high school when Booker T. Washington High School opened in 1950.
Classes began at Booker T Washington High School on January 23, 1950. It was a model school for blacks, even for many white communities. Many referred to it as one of the best built schools for blacks in the country. Built at a cost of a million and a half dollars ($1,514.065) for the physical plant and $500,000 for equipment, Booker T. Washington was one of the most modern schools in Louisiana, offering innovations such as individual lockers for all students, central heating, movable desks, modern laboratories, administrative offices, asphalt tile floors, and fluorescent lighting. One of the many traditions at Booker T. Washington High School included the Soul Bowl, which featured the Booker T. Washington High School Lions versus the Green Oaks Giants.
Read more about this topic: Booker T. Washington High School (Shreveport, Louisiana)
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“The history of reform is always identical; it is the comparison of the idea with the fact. Our modes of living are not agreeable to our imagination. We suspect they are unworthy. We arraign our daily employments.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Racism is an ism to which everyone in the world today is exposed; for or against, we must take sides. And the history of the future will differ according to the decision which we make.”
—Ruth Benedict (1887–1948)