Forest Avenue High School, Old - Dallas Texas - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

From Wikipedia:

History

The original Forest Avenue High School was constructed in 1916 in the style of Italian Renaissance architecture, in what were then fast-growing suburban areas of Dallas. The building is on the United States National Register of Historic Places on the basis of its architecture as well as its importance in the growing South Dallas community over the period ending with the close of World War II in 1945. Over the 40 years after the building was erected, demographics of the surrounding community shifted as large numbers of African-Americans moved into the area.

On June 14, 1956, the Dallas Board of Education announced that Forest Avenue High School would have its attendance zone redrawn to relieve overcrowding at the two existing "Negro schools," Booker T. Washington High School and Lincoln High School. In keeping with its existing policy on racial segregation, the school would be reassigned as a school for Black students and the current White student body would attend Crozier Tech High School. The following day, the front page of The Dallas Morning News reported the criticism of the Texas Field Secretary of the NAACP, Edgar Washington, Jr., of the district's decision to turn over the school rather than to integrate; the paper also ran an editorial in the same day's paper applauding the school system for providing Black students with an excellent facility while not violating state law by integrating the school. One week later, the paper reported a petition by "the Dad's Club [sic] and Parent-Teacher Association" of the school — with signatures from the student body — to request that the school's name, colors (green and white), and emblem (lion) be retired, with the colors and emblem remaining available to any future whites-only school that might request to use them. The principal announced at that same meeting that all Forest Avenue trophies and other memorabilia were to be transferred to Crozier Tech. The school reopened that fall as James Madison High School, and the first day was reported as uneventful, though the district's faculty and staff had been prepared for possible repetition of the 1955 attempts of 24 Black students to enroll in five White schools.
Statistics

The attendance rate for students at the school is 87%, compared with a state average of 96%. 64% of the students at Madison are economically disadvantaged, 14% enroll in special education, 12% enroll in gifted and talent programs, and 6% are considered "limited english proficient."

The ethnic makeup of the school is 86% African American, 13% Hispanic, 1% White American, non-Hispanic, and less than 1% Asian American/Pacific Islander American.

The average class sizes at Madison are 16 students for English, 22 for foreign language, 16 for math, 16 for science, and 17 for social studies.
Teachers at the school carry, on average, 12 years of teaching experience and 11% of the teachers on staff are first-year teachers.

Street address: 3000 Martin Luther King, Jr., Blvd Dallas, Texas USA 75050 County / Borough / Parish: Dallas County Year listed: 1995 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Architecture Periods of significance: 1900-1924 Historic function: School Current function: Education Privately owned?: no Season start / Season finish: From: 01/01/2009 To: 12/31/2009 Hours of operation: From: 9:00 AM To: 5:00 PM Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   07/27/2010 Geojeepsters visited it