Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in Washington D.C. was America’s first black public high school. Named after black poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, the high school produced some of the most successful blacks in the country.
Dunbar High was founded in 1870 as the Preparatory High School for Colored Youth in the basement of the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church. It was later changed to M Street High School before being renamed Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in 1916. Dunbar High was D.C.’s answer to the lack of funding for black schools from D.C. Board of Education. Gaining the reputation of the best black establishment for higher education in the country, the school employed a high number of teachers with PHD’s.
In 1977, the original structure was torn down and rebuilt with a more contemporary look. It was the center of controversy for many blacks who believed the old structure held more history and significance.
Dunbar High was the alma mater of many accomplished African Americans: Benjamin Davis, the first black U.S. Army General, Mary Church Terrell, one of America’s first black college graduates and founder of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, and Norma Johnson, the first black woman to preside as a judge in the federal courts. Other prominent graduates were Charles R. Drew, Anna Julia Cooper, Kelly Miller, Wesley Brown and Carter G. Woodson, among others.
Author Alison Stewart has written “First Class” about the legacy of Dunbar High and the impact that America’s first black public high school had on black education in the country. Within the pages of the book, the author includes interviews with family members of graduates from Dunbar High, including the CEO of BET, Ms. Debra Lee, and Valerie Jarrett, President Obama’s Senior Advisor. Stewart has also created the First Class/United Negro College Fund Scholarship to assist students from Dunbar High School with college funding assistance.
