Booker T. Washington High School (Houston, Texas)

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Booker T. Washington High School is a secondary school located at 119 East 39th Street in Houston, Texas with a zip code of 77018.

Booker T. Washington, which serves grades 9 through 12, is a part of the Houston Independent School District. Booker T. Washington has a neighborhood program that serves neighborhoods outside of the 610 Loop and inside Beltway 8 in the northwest part of Houston, including the neighborhoods of Independence Heights, Highland Heights, and most of Acres Homes. The school was named after education pioneer Booker T. Washington.

The High School For Engineering Professions is located in the Booker T. Washington campus.

[edit] History

The school was established in 1893 in Houston's Fourth Ward as Colored High School. The first location for the school, 303 West Dallas, is considered to be within Downtown Houston as of 2007 [2].

It moved to its present day location in Independence Heights in 1959 [3]. Lockett Junior High School, which closed in June 1968, was established in the former Washington campus [4].

In 1960, the original chapter of the MADEMOISELLES was founded at Booker T. Washington by Ms. Patsy Meeks. In 1964, the original chapter of the GENTS was founded at Booker T. by Mr. Langston Knowles, GENTS is now present at over 29 different Houston area high schools. Booker T. Washington was desegregated in 1970. Houston ISD's first magnet program, High School For Engineering Professions, was established in 1975 at Booker T. Washington.

After Franklyn Wesley retired as principal, Houston ISD chose Mark Bedell, formerly an assistant principal at Worthing High School, as the principal [5]. Victor Keys, an assistant principal at Washington and an alumnus of Washington, will remain as an assistant principal. Some alumni of Washington High School and members of the community around the school protested the decision to hire Bedell because they wished for the district to hire Keys instead of Bedell. Wesley died Tuesday, September 11, 2007, at 88 years of age. Wesley served as the principal of the campus for more than forty years. He worked as an educator for more than 65 years, spending all of the years except for ten in HISD. [6] [7].

In 2007 Johns Hopkins University referred to Washington as a "dropout factory" ^[1].

[edit] Transportation

Houston ISD provides school bus transportation to students who live more than two miles away from the school. Students zoned to the school and students who are enrolled in the magnet program are eligible for bus transportation.

The METRO city bus line also operates the 66 Yale bus line, which stops at the intersection of Yale Street and Cockerel Street.

[edit] School uniforms

Washington requires its students to wear school uniforms consisting of polo shirts with school logos and khaki, navy, or black trousers or skirts.^[2] The Texas Education Agency specifies that parents with children in their zoned schools may opt out of uniform policies. ^[3]; parents must specify "bona fide" reasons, such as religious reasons or philosophical objections.

[edit] Feeder patterns

The following elementary schools feed into Washington High School^[4]:

• Allen ^[5]
• Burrus ^[6]
• Hohl ^[7]
• Kennedy ^[8]
• Wesley ^[9]
• Garden Oaks (partial) ^[10]
• Highland Heights (partial) ^[11]
• Osborne (partial) ^[12]
• Roosevelt (partial) ^[13]

Most of M.C. Williams Middle School ^[14] and small parts of Black Middle School ^[15] and Alexander Hamilton Middle School ^[16] feed into Booker T. Washington.

[edit] Notable alumni

• Eldridge Dickey - Legendary Black college Quarterback and former NFL Wide Receiver for the Oakland Raiders.
• Mercury Hayes - Former NFL Wide Receiver for the New Orleans Saints, Atlanta Falcons, and Washington Redskins.^[17]
• Jennifer Holliday - Grammy award winning singer and actress. ^[18]
• Lawrence Marshall - (Houston ISD board member)^[18]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Booker T. Washington High School