Dunbar School (Tucson, Arizona)

Dunbar School was a segregated middle school in Tucson, Arizona which closed as an integrated school in 1978.[5]

Dunbar School
Location
325 W. Second Street[1]

Tucson
,
Arizona
Coordinates32.2328°N 110.9774°W / 32.2328; -110.9774
Information
Other nameJohn Spring Junior High School (September 1957-1978)
Former nameColored School (1913-1917)[2]
TypePublic, segregated
Established1913 (1913)[3]
September 1951 (1951-09) (as John Spring Junior High School)[4]
StatusClosed
ClosedMay 1951 (as a segregated school)[4]
1978 (as John Spring Junior High School)[5]
School districtTucson Unified School District

The school, during its segregated era, was named after African-American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar.[5]

History

Dunbar School, first named Colored School, was opened to African American students on September 22, 1913.[6] At first, students attended classes at a small building, later moving to a new premise.[3]

Construction of a new building for the school was financed by a 1917 bond issue of $150,000 that also financed the construction of Safford Junior High School, in addition to financing repairs to existing school buildings.[7]

The school was noted for having deficient funding,[3] and the building did not have a cafeteria, auditorium, or new textbooks.[6] The school, however, would get an auditorium, cafeteria, and 23 classrooms in 1948.[6]

Integration

The end of the school's segregated era came in 1951, when the Arizona State Legislature repealed laws that mandated segregation of elementary and middle school students,[4] and gave districts the authority to desegregate.[8] That same year, the Dunbar School graduated its last all African-American group of students.[4]

Following the decision to integrate the district, then Tucson Unified School District superintendent Robert Morrow recommended the school be renamed, in an effort to erase any possible traces of segregation.[4] The integrated school was named after early Tucson educator John Spring.[4]

Despite the end of segregation at Tucson Unified, school segregation nevertheless perpetuated, due to neighborhood housing patterns.[8] In the 1973-1974 school year, Spring was one of 28 Tucson schools that were classified as racially identifiable.[9]

Aftermath

The school was closed in 1978.[5] In 1995, a group called the Dunbar Coalition bought the former school's building from Tucson Unified, with the aim of transforming the school building into an African-American museum and cultural center.[10] Since then, the school's auditorium has been used as rented space, and the building is home to a barber school, a commercial kitchen, a dance studio, and a cosmetology school.[11]

See also

References
  1. Kleespie, Tom (21 April 2011). "A Brief History of Segregation". Arizona Public Media. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  2. "In The Steps Of Esteban: Tucson's African American Heritage". University of Arizona. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  3. Devine, Dave (17 November 2005). "Community Center Again". Tucson Weekly. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  4. Devine, David (2015). Tucson: A History of the Old Pueblo from the 1854 Gadsden Purchase. McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 108. ISBN 9780786497102. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  5. "Black History Month 2013". Tucson Unified School District. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  6. Afnan, Mihdi (21 April 2016). "Roses that grew from concrete: The Dunbar School". Arizona Sonora News. Retrieved 14 January 2018. For Dunbar, this all began on Sept. 18, 1913, when the Arizona Daily Star's Thursday morning storyline read, "For the first time in the history of Tucson, negro pupils will have their own school and their own teacher when the city schools open next Monday."
  7. "Success and Failure 1910 - 1920 - Part 1". The First Hundred Years. Tucson Unified School District. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  8. "Timeline of Desegregation in Tucson Unified School District" (PDF). Tucson Unified School District. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  9. ""The Desegregation Question" 1968-1983". Bridging Three Centuries. Tucson Unified School District. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  10. "History & Overview Of The Dunbar Project". Dunbar Project. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  11. Portillo, Ernesto Jr. (27 August 2016). "Neto's Tucson: Dunbar barber school teaches more than cutting hair". Arizona Daily Star. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
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