DuSable High School

DuSable High School (Campus)
Peace if possible, but justice at any rate.
Address
4934 S. Wabash Avenue Chicago, Illinois, 60615 United States
Coordinates	41°48′17″N 87°37′30″W / 41.8046°N 87.6251°W / 41.8046; -87.6251Coordinates: 41°48′17″N 87°37′30″W / 41.8046°N 87.6251°W / 41.8046; -87.6251
Information
School type	Public Secondary
Opened	1935 2005 (DuSable Leadership) 2005 (Bronzeville) 2005 (Williams Prep)
School district	Chicago Public Schools
CEEB Code	140790 (Dusable Leadership) 140981 (Bronzeville) 141109 (Williams Prep)[1]
Principal	Venesa Andrews (DuSable Leadership) Leeandra Khan (Bronzeville) Diann Weston (Williams Prep)
Grades	9–12
Gender	Coed
Enrollment	234 (DuSable Leadership; 2013)[2] 503 (Bronzeville; 2013)[3] 295 (Williams Prep; 2013)[4]
Campus type	Urban
Color(s)	Red      Black[5]
Athletics conference	Chicago Public League[5]
Team name	Panthers[5]
Accreditation(s)	North Central Association of Colleges and Schools
Yearbook	Red and Black[6]
Website	DuSable Leadership Bronzeville Williams Prep

DuSable High School was a public 4-year high school located in the Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It was operated by the Chicago Public Schools district. The school was named after Chicago's first permanent non-native settler, Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable. The school opened in 1935. The school is now divided into three smaller schools that operate within DuSable. They are the Bronzeville Scholastic Institute, DuSable Leadership Academy (part of the Betty Shabazz International Charter School), which is currently being phased out,^[7] and the Daniel Hale Williams Preparatory School of Medicine. All of the schools use the DuSable name in an athletics context.^[8] The school building was designated a Chicago Landmark on May 1, 2013.^[9]

History

Work on the school began in February 1931, and was specifically constructed to accommodate the increasing population of Phillips High School.^[10] Construction was delayed for financial reasons, and was completed with a public works grant.^[10] The school opened on February 4, 1935, and was called New Wendell Phillips High School.^[10] New Phillips was a part of a five high school expansion that included Lane Tech High School, Steinmetz High School, Senn High School, and Wells High School.^[11] The building was designed by Paul Gerhardt, Sr., an architect for the Chicago Board of Education.^[12] On April 25, 1936, the school's name was changed to honor Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, the first non-native to settle the area; however there was a delay in implementing the name, as the exact spelling was in dispute.^[13] During the 1940s on thru the 1960s, DuSable enrollment was more than 4,000 which prompted two graduation ceremonies (spring and summer).

DuSable's initial fame was in its music program. Captain Walter Dyett was the longtime music instructor at the school, who created a music program that turned out a number of notable and eminent musical artists, particularly in the genre of jazz. The school's alumni and staff include individuals who hold unique historic positions, particularly in the area of African-American history. DuSable became surrounded by the Robert Taylor Homes, a Chicago Housing Authority public housing project where 80% of the student population were residents.^[14] It was the largest housing project in the US, but has been demolished because its design did not work for residents. In 2003, Chicago Public Schools decided to phase out DuSable due to its poor academic performance. In 2005, three schools were opened in the building as apart of the Renaissance 2010 program. All three of the schools; Bronzeville Scholastic Institute, Daniel Hale Williams School of Medicine and DuSable Leadership Academy were created by DuSable staff members.^[15]

Athletics

DuSable competes in the Chicago Public League (CPL) and is a member of the Illinois High School Association (IHSA). DuSable's boys basketball team were Public League champions in 1953 and 1954, and regional champions in 2012 and 2013.^[16]

Other information

Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Board of Education opened a birth control clinic in the school in June 1985, in efforts to lower the school's high teen-age pregnancy and drop-out rates.^[17] The opening of the clinic caused worldwide controversy.^[18][19][20] The school once held an inner sanctuary that had many different animals, including peacocks, a goat, snakes, pigeons, chickens, and various other species. Under the leadership of Physics teacher Bennett Brown, and with funding from a NASA education grant, in 1994 DuSable became the first public high school in Chicago to get connected to the Internet.^[21]

Gang violence and crime

By 1980, the school had developed a reputation for gang violence. In January 1986, a 15-year old male student was stabbed by another student.^[22] On October 13, 1987, 15-year old freshmen Dartagnan Young was shot to death in a gang-related shooting in the hallway on the school's third floor by a classmate.^[23] The murder prompted some students to transfer from DuSable. In June 2009, a 20-year old man was fatally shot in a vehicle near DuSable after dropping off a female student at the school; a 19-year old man was injured in the shooting.^[24]

Notable alumni

Sonny Cohn

• Gene Ammons was a pioneering jazz tenor saxophone player.^[25][26]
• Ronnie Boykins was a jazz bassist, most noted for his work with Sun Ra.^[27][28]
• Maurice Cheeks is a former NBA guard (1978–93).^[29][30]
• Sonny Cohn was a jazz trumpet player, perhaps best known for his 24 years playing with Count Basie.^[26]
• Nat King Cole was a pianist and crooner, predominantly of pop and jazz works (Unforgettable). In 2000, he was elected into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.^[25]
• Jerome Cooper was a jazz musician who specialized in percussion.^[26]
• Don Cornelius was a television show host and producer, best known as the host of Soul Train. (1971–93).^[31]
• Richard Davis is a bassist and professor of music at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.^[26]
• Dorothy Donegan was a jazz pianist.^[26]
• Redd Foxx was a standup comedian and actor, best known for his role on the television series Sanford and Son.^[32]
• Von Freeman was a jazz tenor saxophonist.^[26]
• John Gilmore was a clarinet and saxophone player, best known for his time with the Sun Ra Arkestra, a group he briefly led after Sun Ra's death.^[26][28]
• Johnny Griffin was a bebop and hard bop tenor saxophone player.^[25]
• Eddie Harris was a jazz musician best known for playing tenor saxophone and for introducing the electrically amplified saxophone.^[33]
• Johnny Hartman was a jazz singer (Lush Life), best known for his work with John Coltrane.^[26]
• Fred Hopkins (Dyett High School campus) is a jazz bassist.^[26]
• Joseph Jarman is a jazz composer, percussionist, clarinetist, and saxophonist.^[26]
• Ella Jenkins is a Grammy Award–winning musician and singer best known for her work in folk music and children's music.^[34]
• LeRoy Jenkins was a violinist who worked mostly in free jazz.^[26]
• John H. Johnson was the founder of Johnson Publishing Company (Ebony, Jet), and the first African-American on the Forbes list of the richest 400 Americans.^[35]
• Clifford Jordan (Dyett High School campus) was a jazz saxophonist.^[26]
• Walter Perkins was a jazz percussionist.^[26]
• Kevin Porter is a former NBA guard (1972–81, 82–83).^[29][30]
• Julian Priester was a jazz trombone player.^[26]
• Elise Wang (Dyett High School campus) is a Rhodes Scholar.
• Wilbur Ware was a hard bebop bassist.^[26]
• Dinah Washington was a Grammy award–winning jazz singer (What a Diff'rence a Day Makes, Teach Me Tonight). She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 as an "early influence".^[26]
• Harold Washington was the 51st Mayor of Chicago (1983–87), and was the city's first African–American mayor.^[36][37][38]
• Arthur J. "Pete" Wilson Jr. (class of 41) was the first black undergraduate at Princeton University and first black captain of its basketball team. He went on to become a deputy U.S. Marshall and was appointed as U.S Marshall of the Eastern District of Illinois (also first black to hold the position) by President Gerald Ford.

Notable staff

• Captain Walter Dyett was a noted violinist and music instructor at the school.^[25]
• Margaret Taylor-Burroughs is a writer and artist who taught at DuSable for 23 years. She is best known for co-founding the DuSable Museum of African American History.^[39][40]

References

External links

• Chicago Public Schools DuSable page
• Athletic Summaries