Carver High School (full name George Washington Carver High School,[2] formerly known as Phoenix Union Colored High School)[2] was a public high school in Phoenix, Arizona, established to serve African-American students during a time of school segregation. The school was constructed in 1926.[3]
The school's building was the only one built in the state of Arizona, exclusively to serve African American high school students.[4]
Since 1996, the building has been home to the George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center.[5]
Historic site
The school was built on the site of a former four-acre landfill, and was surrounded by warehouses.[2] The school board purchased the site in 1925 for $10,500.[6] The Phoenix-based architectural firm of Fitzhugh and Byron was chosen to draw up the plans. The firm, which included Lee Mason Fitzhugh (1877-1937) and Lester A. Byron (1889-1963), were designers of commercial, residential, and community buildings in Phoenix and around the state of Arizona from the 1910s through the mid-1930s.[7][8]
Students who attended classes at the school said the school was built in between the two African American communities south of Downtown Phoenix at the time, and was strategically placed to serve as many African American students as possible.[2]
There were initial protests to the location, due to its proximity to industrial and contaminated area.[9] Even the school board admitted at the time that the location would require "watchmen to protect children going to and from school", and physicians declared the location a "hot bed and nucleus of virulent contagious diseases".[6]
The school was built by general contractors Pierson & Johnson, who submitted a bid of $110,000.[6] The school was remodeled and enlarged in 1948, which included the building of new shop facilities, as well as a 1,000-seat stadium.[6]
After the school's closure, school grounds were converted into office and storage space.[2][9][6]
The school grounds were purchased by the Phoenix Monarchs Alumni Association, a group of Carver High alumni, in 1996.[11] The school's alumni collected US$200,000, including a grant by the city's Parks and Recreation Board, to buy the building.[12] Work began in 2001 to convert the site into a community cultural center and art gallery, in a partnership with the City of Phoenix which involved several million dollars of Phoenix bond funding, along with other grants.[9][11]
A report by Phoenix NPR station KJZZ noted that the school campus could have been demolished, had efforts to save it fail to materialize.[2]
Currently, the former school's main building and shop building still exist.,[6] While the school's football field has been paved over,[12] the nearby grandstand still exists.[6]
The campus was added to the Phoenix Historic Property Register, after the Phoenix City Council approved the addition in March 2017.[13][14] This will protect the school campus from demolition, as well as making the site eligible for city incentives to help with rehabilitation.[13]
In 1909, before Arizona gained statehood, the Arizona territory passed a law that said segregation in elementary schools was legal when there were more than 8 African Americans. However, segregation of high schools was never required under Arizona law.[9][17]
During the 1920s and late 1910s, African American students were segregated in the cellar of Phoenix Union High School, as in many other schools in Arizona at the time.
Carver High had its roots in the "Department for Colored Students" that was established at a rear room of Phoenix Union High School's Commercial Building in 1918, with one teacher.[6] The school's African American students were then housed in two small cottages that was separated from the PUHS campus by an irrigation ditch,[6] and later housed the students at a house on 9th Street and Jefferson.[6]
The school opened in 1926, costing the district $150,000.[15] According to Phoenix Union High School District, the school was built to accommodate the district's African American population.[15] Many contemporary sources, however, state that the school was built to segregate African American high school students.[2][9][18] Another possible reason may be that the two races broke out into frequent fights at school. The school was the only legally segregated high school in Phoenix,[2] and it opened following anti-African American sentiments that increased after World War I.[9]
This new school was dedicated on September 10, 1926, in a huge ceremony. Almost 350 people packed into the auditorium of the new Phoenix Union Colored High School. The school would have more teachers, more equipment, and sports teams. Most importantly, the school had new AC System. However, the sports teams were not allowed to play with White sports teams, the games were between Mexican and Native American students, who also went to segregated schools.
The school's final location opened for classes on September 14.[6]
The school was renamed after George Washington Carver in 1943, the year in which Carver died, with the hiring of W. A. Robinson, an accomplished educator,[2] and it was closed in 1954,[15] a year after a judge at the Maricopa County Superior Court ruled school segregation in Phoenix high schools was unconstitutional, in the case Phillips vs. Phoenix Union High Schools and Junior College District.[9][19]
To this day, Phoenix Union High School District's website makes few references to the school's segregated past, merely stating that the school closed, following integration.[15]
Education
The school was known for its strong academics and athletic programs, despite having deficient resources, like microscopes.[9]
In 1943, after W. A. Robinson became principal, many students and teachers recall that he recruited teachers from all across the country.
Therefore, many of the recruited teachers there held Master's degrees, at a time when few did.[2]
In 1950, two African Americans, Hayzel Burton Daniels and Carl Sims, were elected to the Arizona state legislature. To end “separate-but-equal” once and for all, Daniels and two White attorneys, with the help of several Arizonan civil rights organizations, filed a lawsuit on June 9, 1952. They argued that,
"The high schools of Phoenix, Maricopa, Arizona, set apart for White students…are superior to the schools set apart for the African race. Segregation of African pupils by race has a detrimental effect on such African pupils, imparting to them a stigma of inferiority, retarding their educational and mental development, and depriving them of some of the benefits they would receive in an integrated school system.” [21]
On February 8, 1953, Judge Struckmeyer ruled that the 1909 segregation law was unconstitutional, and that all high schools would have to integrate as soon as possible. This was more than a year before the United States Supreme Court decided the case of Brown v. Board of Education.[21]
After that, Arizonan activist organizations set out to integrate elementary schools as well.
So on May 5, 1954, Superior Court Judge Charles Bernstein ruled in Heard v. Davis that all elementary school segregation in Arizona violated the 14th amendment. It was ruled 4 days before the rest of the country integrated.[22][dubious–discuss]
In the national desegregation case of Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court cited these two Arizona cases in their arguments to integrate.[citation needed] Brown v. Board of Education was an important turning point of the Civil Rights movement. This case was not only the first step toward desegregation, but it was also the first step to breaking other barriers of discrimination for other minorities as well.
Phoenix is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1,662,607 residents as of 2024. It is the fifth-most populous city in the United States and the most populous state capital in the country.
Litchfield Park is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. It is located 19 miles (31 km) west of Phoenix. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 6,847, up from 5,476 in 2010.
Tempe is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, with the Census Bureau reporting a 2020 population of 180,587. The city is named after the Vale of Tempe in Greece. Tempe is located in the East Valley section of metropolitan Phoenix; it is bordered by Phoenix and Guadalupe on the west, Scottsdale and the Salt River Pima–Maricopa Indian Community on the north, Chandler on the south, and Mesa on the east. Tempe is the location of the main campus of Arizona State University.
KJZZ is a National Public Radio member station in Phoenix, Arizona. Owned by Rio Salado College, it operates from studios on the college's campus in Tempe. KJZZ airs a format of NPR, and blues and airs jazz on its HD2 subchannel. KJZZ is sister station to the area's main classical music station, KBAQ.
The Phoenix Union High School District is a high school-only school district in Phoenix, Arizona, United States. It is one of five high school-only districts in the Phoenix area.
North High School is a high school that forms part of the Phoenix Union High School District in Phoenix, Arizona.
Lincoln Johnson Ragsdale Sr. was an influential leader in the Phoenix-area Civil Rights Movement. Known for his outspokenness, Ragsdale was instrumental in various reform efforts in the Valley, including voting rights and the desegregation of schools, neighborhoods, and public accommodations.
Phoenix Union High School (PUHS) was a high school that was part of the Phoenix Union High School District in downtown Phoenix, Arizona, one of five high school-only school districts in the Phoenix area. Founded in 1895 and closed in 1992, the school consisted of numerous buildings on a campus which by 1928 consisted of 18 acres.
The Murphy Elementary School District 21 is an elementary school district in Phoenix, Arizona. It operates three K-8 schools and previously operated a fourth.
Eleanor Dickey Ragsdale was an American educator, entrepreneur, and activist in the Civil Rights Movement in the Phoenix area. In 2023, Ragsdale was inducted into the Arizona Women's Hall of Fame.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Phoenix, Arizona, United States.
The Maricopa County Courthouse and Old Phoenix City Hall, also known as the County-City Administration Building, is a historic structure in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. The structure consists of two buildings in a conjoined layout sharing the same architecture.
Frederick Christian Struckmeyer Jr. was a justice of the Supreme Court of Arizona from January 3, 1955, to January 19, 1982. He served as chief justice of the court on four occasions.
Dunbar School was a segregated middle school in Tucson, Arizona which closed as an integrated school in 1978.
Dunbar Elementary School is an elementary school in Phoenix, Arizona that was once segregated.
Carver Court is a historic housing development located at Foundry Street and Brooks Lane near Coatesville in Caln Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. Built in 1944 in the International Style, Carver Court is important to understanding the African American experience in Coatesville. The development was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.
Calvin C. Goode was a Phoenix accountant, city councilman, vice mayor, and civil rights leader. Goode was the longest-serving councilman in Phoenix history, serving 11 consecutive terms totaling 22 years of service. The Calvin C. Goode municipal building and the annual Phoenix Calvin C. Goode Lifetime Achievement Award were named in his honor.
Betty Fairfax was an educator, counselor, and philanthropist with the Phoenix, Arizona high school district.
Rebecca Dallis was an American educator and activist for the education of African American children.
↑ Finn, Elizabeth (July 1998). "The Struggle for Civil Rights in Arizona". State Bar of Arizona. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 3 December 2017. At mid-century, state law mandated segregation in the elementary schools but made it optional in the high schools.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
