Booker T. Washington High School (Houston)

Booker T. Washington High School

Booker T. Washington High School (nicknamed "Booker T.") is a secondary school located in the Independence Heights community in Houston, Texas.^[1]

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.

History

The school was established in 1893 in Houston's Fourth Ward as "Colored High." The first location for the school, 303 West Dallas, is considered to be within Downtown Houston as of 2007.^[2] Originally it was the only secondary school for black people in the city. In 1925 the school board stated that it would build a new black high school due to the increasing black population. The Houston Informer stated that the schools need to be named after prominent black people from the city and/or other successful black persons. The original colored high school was renamed after Booker T. Washington, a famous black educator who became the namesake of many black schools in the Southern United States.^[3] The school was given its current name in 1928. Washington was relieved by the construction and opening of Jack Yates High School and Wheatley High School in the 1920s.^[4]

It moved to its present-day location in Independence Heights in 1959.^[5] Lockett Junior High School, which closed in June 1968, was established in the former Washington campus.^[2]

After Franklyn Wesley retired as principal, Houston ISD chose Mark Bedell, formerly an assistant principal at Worthing High School, as the principal.^[6] Victor Keys, an assistant principal and an alumna 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.^[7][8] The current principal is LaShonda Bilbo-Ervin.

Wesley died September 11, 2007, at age 88. Wesley served as the principal of the campus for more than 40 years. He worked as an educator for more than 65 years, spending all of the years except for 10 in HISD.

In 2007, a Johns Hopkins University study commissioned by the Associated Press cited Washington as a "dropout factory" where at least 40% of the entering freshman class does not make it to their senior year.^[9]

In February 2012, because the school population was at a historic low of 823, several members of the Independence Heights community, led by Sylvester Turner, a Texas Legislature representative, advocated for reinvestment in the school. They advocated for making Washington competitive with Reagan High School and Waltrip High School.^[1] The leaders argue that HISD had neglected the school.^[10] Turner and Washington High School officials established a donation campaign. As of January 19, 2012, the campaign raised $135,000. Kroger donated $10,000 of the funds.^[11]

Around 2012, each year 400 students from Booker T. Washington transfer to Reagan and Waltrip.^[1]

By 2015 the district purchase several houses around the high school as part of its program to rebuild the high school.^[12] After criminals began taking parts from the houses residents argued that the way the houses were acquired could attract criminality.^[13]

Academics

In 2011 the Texas Education Agency gave the overall school an "unacceptable" rating. 51% of the school's 9th grade students passed the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills mathematics portion.^[1]

In 2012 Houston Community College established an auto mechanic program at Booker T. Washington. The previous auto mechanic program closed around 1997. Before 2012 the auto shop had been filled with waste. The Houston Independent School District paid $300,000 to restore the auto shop.^[1]

Around 2012 Texas A&M University and Booker T. Washington partnered to give university scholarships to some engineering students.^[1]

Campus

Sylvester Turner advocated for the replacement of the gymnasium floors; they were replaced in the northern hemisphere fall of 2011. Turner said in February 2012 that the campus needed an overhaul greater than the $3.8 million that the district allotted to the school as a result of the previous bond election.^[1]

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.

Student body

In 1995 the school had 1,520 students.^[1] In 2010 the school had about 900 students.^[14] In February 2012 it had 823 students, a historic low in the population statistics.^[1]

In the 2011-2012 school year, the magnet school, with a capacity of 400 students, had 226 students.^[1]

School uniforms

Washington requires its students to wear white, gold, or royal blue polo shirts, and khaki pants, navy blue pants, black pants. students are allowed to were jeans without holes, skin should not show.

Feeder patterns

The following elementary schools feed into Washington High School:^[15]

• Burrus^[16]
• Hohl^[17]
• Kennedy^[18]
• Wesley^[19]
• Garden Oaks (partial)^[20]
• Highland Heights (partial)^[21]
• Osborne (partial)^[22]
• Roosevelt (partial)^[23]

Most of M.C. Williams Middle School^[24] and small parts of Black Middle School^[25] and Alexander Hamilton Middle School^[26] feed into Booker T. Washington.

Notable alumni

• Eldridge Dickey (class of 1964) - Former quarterback/wide receiver for the AFL Oakland Raiders; in 1968 became the first African-American to be selected in the first round of a professional football draft.
• Mercury Hayes (class of 1992) - Former NFL wide receiver/kick returner for the New Orleans Saints, Atlanta Falcons, and Washington Redskins practice squad.^[27]
• Jennifer Holliday (class of 1978) - Grammy award winning singer and actress.^[28]
• Mike Jones (rapper) (did not graduate) - Notable Houston Rapper
• Lawrence Marshall (class of 1951) - Former board member for Houston Independent School District ^[29]
• Speedy Thomas (class of 1965) - Former NFL receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals, and New Orleans Saints.
• Rogers O. Whitmire, B.S., M.S., M.D. (class of 1963) - One of first five African-American physicians to graduate from Michigan State University College of Human Medicine (1973) and the first student of any race to graduate from Michigan State University's medical school in 3 years; first African-American physician to complete the OB/GYN (Obstetrics and Gynecology) program at Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston, Texas; in 1977 became the first African-American physician to establish a private medical office in the Texas Medical Center of Houston, Texas (active continuously from 1977 until Dr. Whitmire's death in 2015).

See also

• History of the African-Americans in Houston

References

External links

• Booker T. Washington High School