Langston High School (Arkansas)

Last updated

Langston High School
Location
Hot Springs, Arkansas, U.S.
Information
School typePublic high school, segregated
Established1913
Closed1970
School district Hot Springs School District
Color(s)gold and blue
AccreditationNorth Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools

Langston High School was an American segregated high school for African American students, active from 1913 until 1970 and located in Hot Springs, Arkansas. It was one of the leading schools in Arkansas for African Americans, and was accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. [1]

Contents

It was established in 1913, the first high school for African Americans in Hot Springs. The Hot Springs School District struggled with racial integration for some 14 years, before this school was shut down in 1970 for failure to integrate. The building was eventually torn down. [2]

History

The Rugg Street School (or Rugg Free School, active c. 1894–1913) preceded Langston, and it experienced an arson attempt in 1894, before it was burned down in 1913. [3] [4] [5] A new school building was constructed for the school starting in 1914 at a new location on Silver Street after the fire. Classes were held at the Visitor's Chapel A.M.E. Church basement, until the new building was completed. [6]

Langston High School was named for John Mercer Langston. [1] The school colors were gold and blue. The first graduating class for Langston High School was in 1913 was nine students. [7] The first classes in the newly built building were held in the fall of 1916, and the enrollment was 400 students which had surpassed expectation. [8] [9] By the 1920s, students came from all over the state of Arkansas in order to attend Langston. [10] By 1921, the graduation class was thirty-five students. [11]

Langston High School was accredited in 1950. [3] There was an incident in 1958, after a black male and a white female were seen together in public (and possibly in a romantic relationship which was considered "illicit" and illegal at the time); a 4 foot-tall burning cross was left on the outside of the school set by two white male students. [12] A crowd of 75 to 100 African American students gathered to witness the burning cross incident, with local police attributing it to a "prank". [12]

In 1964, the school was relocated to Chestnut Street. [13] [14] A new building for the school was constructed in 1964 as Hot Springs High School resisted desegregation. [1] In 1967, a "intestinal flu bug" closed the school for days, with more than 300 students were sick out of the 485 enrolled students. [15] Johnnie Belle Henderson, a math teacher, was the high school's last principal. [16] In 1968, the United States Supreme Court used Langston High School as one of the examples for the failure of the school districts reintegration plan, "freedom-to-choose" and they were given the deadline of integration by the fall of 1969. [17] [18] Only two faculty members from Langston were brought over to the local Hot Springs High School after desegregation; the African American students were discriminated against and efforts made to exclude them. [1] The process of racial integration in public school was supposed to start in 1955 (after Brown v. Board of Education ), however Langston experienced many delays, eventually forcing the school to close. [18]

Langston High School was closed in 1970, and was converted to Langston Elementary School. [13] [16] In 1973, the building on Chestnut Street was used as a temporary location for the Garland County Community College (now National Park College). [19]

The Langston Aerospace and Environmental Magnet School is located at 120 Chestnut Street in Hot Springs, it serves pre-K to 6th grade and has a diverse student body. [20] A new building was constructed for it in 2019. [2]

Legacy

The state archives of Arkansas have a 1928 yearbook from the high school. [21] Musician Henry Glover of King Records had graduated from Langston in 1939; and in 2021, a Hot Springs Park was dedicated to him [22] Its football team played against Dunbar High School from Little Rock, Arkansas and future-NFL hall of famer Bobby Mitchell was a star on the team. He recalled being inspired by professional African American athletes visiting Hot Springs. [23]

Alumni

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charleston, Arkansas</span> City in Arkansas, United States

Charleston is a city in Franklin County, Arkansas, United States, and along with Ozark is one of the two county seats of Franklin County. It is part of the Fort Smith, Arkansas-Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 2,494 at the 2010 census, down from 2,965 in 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hot Springs, Arkansas</span> City in Arkansas, United States

Hot Springs is a resort city in the state of Arkansas and the county seat of Garland County. The city is located in the Ouachita Mountains among the U.S. Interior Highlands, and is set among several natural hot springs for which the city is named. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 37,930, making it the 11th most populous city in Arkansas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nashville, Arkansas</span> City in Arkansas, United States

Nashville is a city in Howard County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 4,627 at the 2010 census. The estimated population in 2018 was 4,425. The city is the county seat of Howard County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Camden, Arkansas</span> City in Arkansas, United States

Camden is a city in and the county seat of Ouachita County in the south-central part of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The city is located about 100 miles south of Little Rock. Situated on bluffs overlooking the Ouachita River, the city developed because of the river.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Langston University</span> Historically Black college in Langston, Oklahoma, US

Langston University (LU) is a public land-grant historically black university in Langston, Oklahoma. It is the only historically black college in the state and the westernmost HBCU in the United States. The main campus in Langston is a rural setting 10 miles (16 km) east of Guthrie. The University also serves an urban mission, with University Centers in Tulsa and Oklahoma City. The university is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Arkansas</span> Public university in Fayetteville, Arkansas, US

The University of Arkansas is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System. Founded as Arkansas Industrial University in 1871, classes were first held in 1872, with its present name adopted in 1899.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Little Rock Central High School</span> National Historic Site of the United States

Little Rock Central High School (LRCH) is an accredited comprehensive public high school in Little Rock, Arkansas, United States. The school was the site of the Little Rock Crisis in 1957 after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation by race in public schools was unconstitutional three years earlier. This was during the period of heightened activism in the civil rights movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knoxville College</span> Historically black college in Knoxville, Tennessee, U.S.

Knoxville College is a historically black liberal arts college in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, which was founded in 1875 by the United Presbyterian Church of North America. It is a United Negro College Fund member school.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Mercer Langston</span> American politician (1829–1897)

John Mercer Langston was an American abolitionist, attorney, educator, activist, diplomat, and politician. He was the founding dean of the law school at Howard University and helped create the department. He was the first president of what is now Virginia State University, a historically black college. He was elected a U.S. Representative from Virginia and wrote From the Virginia Plantation to the National Capitol; Or, the First and Only Negro Representative in Congress From the Old Dominion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central High School (Louisville, Kentucky)</span> Public secondary school in Louisville, Kentucky, United States

Central High School is a public high school founded in 1870, and located in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clinton High School (Clinton, Tennessee)</span> School in Tennessee, United States

Clinton High School in Clinton, Tennessee, is the Anderson County, Tennessee, high school that serves students living in and near Clinton, Oliver Springs, and Claxton. As of 2024 students at the school are about 88 percent white and 12 percent other groups including blacks and hispanics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hot Springs High School (Arkansas)</span> Public charter school in Hot Springs, Arkansas, United States

Hot Springs World Class High School (HSWCHS) is a public magnet secondary school located in Hot Springs, Arkansas, United States. HSWCHS is one of seven public high schools in Garland County and the sole high school of the Hot Springs School District. The school's 1914 facility is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and its academic programs include Advanced Placement (AP) coursework and International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme. It was a segregated school and Hot Springs refused to integrate for more than a decade after Brown v. Board of Education and when it finally did it made Langston High School refuse to provide busing to Hot Springs High School from African American neighborhoods, and largely excluded African American faculty from Langston and limited the activities of African American students.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arkansas Baptist College</span> Private college in Little Rock, Arkansas, U.S.

Arkansas Baptist College (ABC) is a private Baptist-affiliated historically black college in Little Rock, Arkansas. Founded in 1884 as the Minister's Institute, ABC was initially funded by the Colored Baptists of the State of Arkansas. It is the only historically black Baptist school west of the Mississippi River. The Main Building on its campus, built in 1893, is one of the oldest surviving academic buildings in the state, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doak S. Campbell</span>

Doak Sheridan Campbell was from 1941 to 1957 president of Florida State College for Women and its successor coeducational school, Florida State University. He oversaw the creation of this new university. His opposition to the admission of African-American students has caused controversy about the naming of Doak S. Campbell Stadium in his honor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frelinghuysen University</span> University in Washington, D.C. (1906–c. 1960)

Frelinghuysen University was a private historically Black university in Washington, D.C., which was open from 1906 to c. 1960. It provided adult education and social services to poor and working-class African Americans. Founded by activists Jesse and Rosetta Lawson, it was the first school to offer evening and extension courses to African American students in Washington, D.C. Focused on providing service to the working poor, the university charged the lowest tuition possible and held classes in local homes and businesses to reduce commuting time for its students.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">School integration in the United States</span> Racial desegregation process

In the United States, school integration is the process of ending race-based segregation within American public and private schools. Racial segregation in schools existed throughout most of American history and remains an issue in contemporary education. During the Civil Rights Movement school integration became a priority, but since then de facto segregation has again become prevalent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edith Irby Jones</span> American physician (1927–2019)

Edith Irby Jones was an American physician who was the first African American to be accepted as a non-segregated student at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and the first black student to attend racially mixed classes in the American South. She was the first African American to graduate from a southern medical school, first black intern in the state of Arkansas, and later first black intern at Baylor College of Medicine.

Dunbar School was a segregated middle school in Tucson, Arizona which closed as an integrated school in 1978.

Silas Herbert Hunt was a U.S. veteran of World War II who became the first African American student to enroll in a white Southern university since the Reconstruction era. He enrolled in the University of Arkansas School of Law on Feb. 2, 1948, breaking the color barrier in higher education and starting integration of colleges and universities in the South.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">African Americans in Arkansas</span> Racial group in the US state

African Americans have played an essential role in the history of Arkansas, but their role has often been marginalized as they confronted a society and polity controlled by white supremacists. During the slavery era to 1865, they were considered property and were subjected to the harsh conditions of forced labor. After the Civil War and the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Reconstuction Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, African Americans gained their freedom and the right to vote. However, the rise of Jim Crow laws in the 1890s and early 1900s led to a period of segregation and discrimination that lasted into the 1960s. Most were farmers, working their own property or poor sharecroppers on white-owned land, or very poor day laborers. By World War I, there was steady emigration from farms to nearby cities such as Little Rock and Memphis, as well as to St. Louis and Chicago.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Mixed opinions abound when HSHS opened". The Sentinel Record. January 17, 2017.
  2. 1 2 Mackay, Mercedes (July 30, 2019). "New school building honors past and future of Hot Springs". thv11.com. KTHV-TV.
  3. 1 2 "Langston reunion draws to a close". The Sentinel Record. July 13, 2019.
  4. ↑ "Hot Springs Happenings -- An Attempt to Burn the Rugg Free School Building". Daily Arkansas Gazette . January 19, 1894. p. 3. Retrieved January 9, 2023.
  5. ↑ Gordon, Fon Louise (January 1, 2007). Caste and Class: The Black Experience in Arkansas, 1880-1920. University of Georgia Press. p. 164. ISBN   978-0-8203-3130-0.
  6. ↑ "First graduating class from Rugg Street school, Hot Springs, Arkansas, 1910". Arkansas Schools. January 1, 1910.
  7. ↑ "Negro High Will Hold Graduation". Hot Springs New Era (newspaper). May 23, 1913. p. 4. Retrieved January 9, 2023.
  8. ↑ "Langston High School Opening". Hot Springs New Era (newspaper). September 29, 1916. p. 4. Retrieved January 9, 2023.
  9. ↑ "Langston School Opens". Hot Springs New Era (newspaper). September 15, 1919. p. 3. Retrieved January 9, 2023.
  10. ↑ "Hot Springs Colored Normal -- School Resumes Work After Adjourning for Murphy Funeral". Hot Springs New Era (newspaper). June 16, 1920. p. 4. Retrieved January 9, 2023.
  11. ↑ "Langston Commencement -- Local Negro High School Will Graduate Thirty-Five Tonight". Hot Springs New Era (newspaper). May 20, 1921. p. 1. Retrieved January 9, 2023.
  12. 1 2 "Cross Burned at High School". The Courier News. September 30, 1958. p. 3. Retrieved January 9, 2023.
  13. 1 2 "Langston High School". researchworks.oclc.org.
  14. ↑ "School Planned". Northwest Arkansas Times. June 17, 1963. p. 3. Retrieved January 9, 2023.
  15. ↑ "Flu 'bug' Closes Spa High School". Northwest Arkansas Times. December 16, 1967. p. 2. Retrieved January 9, 2023.
  16. 1 2 Smith, C. Calvin; Joshua, Linda Walls; Jackson, Linda Walls (September 1, 2005). Educating the Masses: The Unfolding History of Black School Administrators in Arkansas, 1900-2000. University of Arkansas Press. ISBN   9781557288066 – via Google Books.
  17. ↑ "Court Action Seeks Faster Integration". Hope Star. June 14, 1968. p. 9. Retrieved January 9, 2023.
  18. 1 2 "Hot Springs School Heads Picketed". Hope Star. August 15, 1969. p. 4. Retrieved January 9, 2023.
  19. ↑ "National Park Service Officials Help Community College Get Land". The El Dorado Times. September 13, 1973. p. 13. Retrieved January 9, 2023.
  20. ↑ "Langston Magnet School". US News.
  21. ↑ Langston High School Senior Class, Hot Springs, Ark., 1928. July 2, 1928. OCLC   47218776 – via Open WorldCat.
  22. ↑ "City honors recording industry pioneer". The Sentinel Record. May 21, 2021.
  23. ↑ "Bobby Mitchell: Remembering proud graduate of Langston High". The Sentinel Record. April 7, 2020.
  24. ↑ https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/T/ThomIk20.htm
  25. ↑ "Mamie Katherine Phipps Clark (1917–1983)". Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Retrieved January 9, 2023.
  26. ↑ "Obituary for Veter Thomas Howard, Pine Bluff, AR". Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. Retrieved January 9, 2023.
  27. ↑ "Jones, Edith Mae Irby". Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). Retrieved January 9, 2023.

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.