Merrill High School (Arkansas)

Merrill High School was a public secondary school in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, operated by the Pine Bluff School District. It was one of four high schools that served black students in the Pine Bluff area until the public schools were integrated in 1971.

Merrill High School
Location
Pine Bluff
,
Arkansas

U.S.
Information
Former nameMerrill Public School
Merrill Institute
TypePublic
School districtPine Bluff School District
NicknamePirates

History

Originally known as Merrill School, it was named for Joseph Merrill, a philanthropist from New Hampshire. In 1886 Merrill sold a two-story house and some adjoining land to the Pine Bluff School District, and donated money to African-Americans to remodel the house into a five room school.

Newspaper editor and publisher Jesse Duke was one of the people recruited to teach at Merrill School by Marion Rowlamd Perry Sr.[1]

Part of the school later burned, and was restored by the Works Progress Administration in 1939.[2]

Dollarway School District (DSD) sent older black students to Merrill High, as DSD did not have its own high school for either black or white students,[3] until Townsend Park High School opened in 1955.[4]

Athletics

Merrill won back-to-back National Championships in Lamar Allen's freshman year of 1932 and again in 1933.[5]

Notable people

References
  1. Williams, Bettye J. (January 22, 2020). The Pioneers: Early African-American Leaders in Pine Bluff, Arkansas: Freedmen, Newly Freed, and First/Second Generation, Born from 1833-1892. Archway Publishing. ISBN 9781480871922 – via Google Books.
  2. "Joseph Merrill". Retrieved 17 November 2018.
  3. Pickhardt, John B. (Winter 2009). "We Don't Intend to Have a Story: Integration in the Dollarway School District". The Arkansas Historical Quarterly. Arkansas Historical Association. 68 (4): 357–387. JSTOR 40543600. - Cited page 359.
  4. Pickhardt, John B. (Winter 2009). "We Don't Intend to Have a Story: Integration in the Dollarway School District". The Arkansas Historical Quarterly. Arkansas Historical Association. 68 (4): 357–387. JSTOR 40543600. - Cited page 360.
  5. "Arkansas's "White" Newspaper Chose All-Star Teams for State's All-Black Schools". Retrieved 17 November 2018.
  6. "Joseph Carter Corbin". Retrieved 17 November 2018.
  7. "University of Arkansas Mourns Death of Civil Rights Activist Christopher Mercer". 26 November 2012. Retrieved 12 December 2018.
  8. "Cleo Miller". www.statscrew.com. Retrieved 14 August 2021.
  9. "Raye Jean Jordan Montague". Retrieved 17 November 2018.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.