Knoxville Colored High School educated students for 12 years | Opinion
Knoxville Colored High School was in existence for 12 years and was almost invisible in newspaper reporting. Although it was the only Black high school in Knox County, news of its activities was almost never reported. It was created in 1916 after many years of complaints about conditions at the original Austin High School on South Central Street, which had existed since 1879.
Rather than finding a location for a new school, city officials decided to add a new wing to Green Elementary School, which had been established in 1909, and rename it Knoxville Colored High School. Initially, the Black community was delighted that its high school had finally moved from one of the city's worst vice districts, where there were houses of gambling, prostitution and dope, to the more stable neighborhood on Payne Avenue.
The Journal & Tribune of Sept. 24, 1915, reported the laying of the cornerstone: "Fully two thousand colored residents of the city gathered at the site of the new Negro High School adjoining the Green School for the cornerstone laying for the new building. It is being erected at an approximate cost of $30,000 paid for from an extra five-cent levy."
At the ceremony, Mayor Samuel G. Heiskell said, "I take pleasure in representing the city administration upon the occasion and to wish that this building for decades and decades to come, will be justified by the colored people in the interest in the cause of education in the city of Knoxville." Despite those words, the new building was so inadequate, it lasted little more than one decade.
Although the school was under the strong leadership of Principal Charles Warner Cansler and had a good faculty, the facility never could meet the growing Black high school population. It was inadequate before it opened, but it was a relief to have it moved from the hellhole in which it started.
The yearbooks between 1925 and 1928 document the student organizations of the period. Called The Echo, it has pictures of the football teams that played Nelson Merry High School of Jefferson City, Lincoln High of Chattanooga and Morristown College. In 1926 the team had no formal coach and relied on community volunteers. The baseball team had no stellar success either.
The school was proud of its boys' and girls' Glee Clubs. It had various literary societies and science clubs. During that 12-year period between 1916 and 1928, the school graduated approximately 434 students in the 10th and 11th grades. The smallest class was 16 in 1922. The largest was 73 in 1928.
Some of the city's most outstanding citizens were in those classes. Three members of the Class of 1919 were teacher Margaret S. Carson, coach Theodore E. Gross and Principal Monroe D. Senter. Principal Dewey W. Roberts graduated in 1920. LaRoy A. Tate, a member of the Class of 1924, built designs for one of the downtown jewelers.
The KCHS class of 1925 included attorney Edward C. Freeman, English teacher Alfredda Delaney and Principal Ottis T. Hogue. Those names and others are still recognized as major contributors to the educational system in particular and to society in general.
In 1928 the Knoxville Colored High School property became that of Green School again when the new Austin High School was erected at Vine Avenue and Preston Street.
Robert J. Booker is a freelance writer and former executive director of the Beck Cultural Exchange Center. He may be reached at 865-546-1576.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Opinion: Knoxville Colored High School educated students for 12 years
