Douglass School Faculty, 1946

Pages scanned from the 1946 Douglass School Yearbook showing faculty pictures and bios.

Douglass High School-Kingsport, TN (repost from August 2009)

Douglass High School

Douglass High School, 1951. Photo by David Peirce. 

The desegregation of public schools and the integration of  Kingsport’s African-American students into Dobyns-Bennett High School led to the closing of Kingsport’s Douglass High School in 1966. At the time of the closing, Douglass was the largest African-American High School in the Upper East Tennessee Region.

Ms. Warfield’s 4th grade classroom, 1952. 1st row: Willena Stokley, Mary Cox, Delores Bly, Ronald Taylor. 2nd row: Dora Neal, Major Burnette, Lillian Underwood, Lenetta Lee, Carl Bradford 3rd row: Ronald Lindsay, Edward McMiller, Brenda Leeper, Olivia Smith, Carolyn Rockmore, Jerry Price. 4th row: Tim Price, Barbara Campbell, Jean Lane, Priscilla Etter, Yvonne Deal. 5th row: Norman Hankins. Unknown photographer.

The old Douglass School was eventually turned into the  V.O. Dobbins Community Center (named after former principal Von Omer Dobbins). The building is currently undergoing a major renovation and expansion project and the City of Kingsport has worked closely with the Douglass High School Alumni Association to keep the memory of the school alive.

Miss Douglass High School, Marie Briscoe, and her court, 1949. The two attendants are Ruby Hodges (left) and Gwendolyn Burnette (right). Photo by Thomas McNeer, Jr.

Prior to building of Douglass High School, the Oklahoma Grove School served as the city’s African-American School. The Oklahoma Grove School opened to African-American students in 1913.

Douglass High School Choir, 1947. Photo by Thomas McNeer, Jr.

The Oklahoma Grove School could not accommodate the growing population and in 1928 a contract was awarded to build Douglass High School between Myrtle and Walnut Streets (now East Sevier) , facing Center Street. The school housed K-12 and again the growing enrollment forced the city to consider a new site for the school.

Douglass High School Band, 1953. Photo by Thomas McNeer, Jr.

In 1951, the Douglass School on Louis Street, in the Riverview Community of Kingsport, opened. The school, named after  Frederick Douglass, the great orator, journalist and abolitionist, closed its doors on June 8, 1966. Nineteen seniors graduated that year in the school’s final commencement exercises.

Members of the 1952-53 Douglass High School Football Team, coached by John Cox, Jr. The team record was 6-3. In the front row (from left to right) are: Durl Bristol, James Swafford, Oscar Ewing, James Leeper, Philip Horton (co-captain), Levenus McClintock, Rudolph Sensabough, Doyle Smith, and Willard Long. Second row: Joe Green, Lawrence Jones, Bravell McClintock, James Donald, Kenneth Lynch, Leon Wagstaff, Nathan Blye (captain), Bennie Banner, and Billye Hipps. Third Row: Spencer Lee, Frank Lynch, Walter Miller, Raymond Thomas, Bobby Hord, Carl Muncy, Cecil Long, Marshall Goodwin, Joe Louis Manuel, and Lonnie Cox. Photo by Thomas McNeer, Jr.

For more information on the Douglass School please visit the archives or you can also check out the Douglass High School Alumni Association Website.

Douglass High School, 1951. Photo by David Peirce.