Booker T Washington High School (also known as BTW) is a public

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

located north of

Downtown Memphis Downtown Memphis, Tennessee is the central business district of Memphis, Tennessee and is located along the Mississippi River between Interstate 40 to the north, Interstate 55 to the south and I-240 to the east, where it abuts Midtown Memphis. It ...

, on the southside of

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The school was administered by the

Memphis City Schools Memphis City Schools (MCS) was the school district operating public schools in the city of Memphis, Tennessee, United States. It was headquartered in the Frances E. Coe Administration Building. On March 8, 2011, residents voted to disband the cit ...

system, until the beginning of the 2013-14 year, it was served by the Shelby County Schools district. It serves grades 9-12. The school gained national attention when U.S. President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

delivered the school's 2011 commencement address as a reward for winning the 2011

Race to the Top Race to the Top (R2T, RTTT or RTT) was a $4.35 billion United States Department of Education competitive grant created to spur and reward innovation and reforms in state and local district K–12 education. Funded as part of the American Recovery ...

Commencement Challenge.

History

The school was founded as the Clay Street School in 1873 and was among the first public high schools for

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

s in Memphis. Green Polonius Hamilton was its principal. It was renamed Kortrecht High School in 1891. In 1926 a new building was constructed and the school was renamed in honor of American educator and civil rights leader

Booker T. Washington Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to several presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American c ...

. Further expansions were completed in the years since, including the Blair T. Hunt Gymnasium, dedicated in 1950.

Race to the Top

The school entered and won the 2011 Race to the Top Commencement Challenge, a competition that "invites public high schools across the country to demonstrate how their school best prepares tudentsfor college and a career." Among the required application materials were student essays and videos that demonstrated the school's innovation in education. The accomplishments of the school included increasing graduation rates from 55% in 2007 to 82% in 2010 through the use of same-gender freshman classrooms and increased teacher effectiveness. BTW also suffered from and overcame high teen pregnancy and violence rates. The school beat out more than 450 other applicant schools, and as a reward for this achievement, President

delivered the school's 2011 commencement speech.

Notable alumni

Johnny Ace John Marshall Alexander Jr. (June 9, 1929 – December 25, 1954), known by the stage name Johnny Ace, was an American rhythm-and-blues singer. He had a string of hit singles in the mid 1950s. Alexander died of an accidental self-inflicted gunsh ...

- Memphis, R&B singer *

J. Blackfoot John Colbert (November 20, 1946 – November 30, 2011), known professionally as J. Blackfoot, was an American soul music, soul singer. A member of The Soul Children in the late 1960s and 1970s, he subsequently had a moderately successful solo ...

- Memphis, Tennessee Soul Singer, member of The Soul Children, best known for his hit song "Taxi" *

The Bar-Kays The Bar-Kays are an American funk band formed in 1964. The band had dozens of record chart, charting single (music), singles from the 1960s to the 1980s, including "Soul Finger" (US Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100 number 17, Hot R&B/Hip ...

- Popular Memphis, Tennessee soul, R&B, and funk band formed in 1966. *

Marion Barry Marion Shepilov Barry (born Marion Barry Jr.; March 6, 1936 – November 23, 2014) was an American politician who served as the second and fourth mayor of the District of Columbia from 1979 to 1991 and 1995 to 1999. A Democrat, Barry had served ...

- Former mayor of Washington, D.C. *

Lucie Campbell Lucie Eddie Campbell (Lucie Eddie Campbell-Williams; April 30, 1885 – January 3, 1963) was an American composer and singer of hymns, as well as an educator and advocate for social justice. Background Lucie Eddie Campbell, the youngest of ni ...

- Evangelist and songwriter *

W. W. Herenton Willie Wilbert Herenton (born April 23, 1940) is an American politician and a Civil Rights leader. He was elected as the first elected African-American Mayor of Memphis, Tennessee. He was subsequently re-elected to an unprecedented five consecut ...

- First African American mayor of Memphis *

George W. Haley George Williford Boyce Haley (August 28, 1925 – May 13, 2015) was an American attorney, diplomat and policy expert who served under seven presidential administrations. He was one of two younger brothers to the Pulitzer Prize winner Alex Haley ...

, lawyer, politician, public official, and ambasador *

Benjamin Hooks Benjamin Lawson Hooks (January 31, 1925 – April 15, 2010) was an American civil rights leader and government official. A Baptist minister and practicing attorney, he served as executive director of the National Association for the Advancemen ...

- American civil rights leader and executive director of the

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. ...

Verdell Mathis Verdell Mathis (November 18, 1914 – October 30, 1998) was a baseball infielder and pitcher in the Negro leagues. He played from 1940 to 1948, primarily for the Memphis Red Sox The Memphis Red Sox were an American Negro league baseball team th ...

Negro league baseball The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be ...

player *

The Mad Lads The Mad Lads were an American rhythm and blues vocal group, who recorded on the Stax subsidiary label Volt in the 1960s. Their biggest hits were "Don't Have to Shop Around" (1965) and "I Want Someone" (1966). Career The group was formed at Boo ...

- Memphis, Tennessee soul, R&B, Stax recording vocal group formed at Booker T Washington High School in 1965. *

Booker T. Jones Booker Taliaferro Jones Jr. (born November 12, 1944) is an American musician, songwriter, record producer and arranger, best known as the frontman of the band Booker T. & the M.G.'s. He has also worked in the studios with many well-known art ...

- American musician and leader of Booker T & The MGs *

David Porter (musician) David Porter (born November 21, 1941) is an American record producer, songwriter, singer, entrepreneur and philanthropist. Porter was a 2005 inductee into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, with catalog sales exceeding 400 million units. In 2015, '' ...

- Stax Records songwriter of many '60s and '70s hits, including Soul Man for Sam & Dave *

Maxine Smith Maxine (Atkins) Smith (October 31, 1929 — April 26, 2013) born in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, was an academic, civil rights activist, and school board official. Smith's leadership in the National Association for the Advancement of Color ...

- Academic, civil rights activist, and school board official. *

Oscar Reed Oscar Reed (born March 24, 1944) is a former professional American football running back who played for the Minnesota Vikings and Atlanta Falcons. Reed played in Super Bowl IV, Super Bowl VIII, and Super Bowl IX. He played college football at Co ...

- Former American professional football player who played running back eight seasons for the Minnesota Vikings from 1968-1974 * Judge Russell B. Sugarmon, Jr. - Civil rights attorney and Member of the Tennessee House of Representatives *

Rufus Thomas Rufus C. Thomas, Jr. (March 26, 1917 – December 15, 2001) was an American rhythm-and-blues, funk, soul and blues singer, songwriter, dancer, DJ and comic entertainer from Memphis, Tennessee. He recorded for several labels, including Chess Rec ...

- Stax Records writer and performer *

Maurice White Maurice White (December 19, 1941 – February 4, 2016) was an American singer, musician, songwriter, and record producer. He was best known as the founder, leader, main songwriter, and producer of the band Earth, Wind & Fire, and served as the ...

- founder of soul & RB hitmakers Earth, Wind and Fire *

Lorenzen Wright Lorenzen Vern-Gagne Wright (November 4, 1975 – July 19, 2010) was an American professional basketball player for 13 seasons in the National Basketball Association. He was drafted seventh overall in the 1996 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Clippers ...

- Professional Basketball Player * Fred Valentine - Major League Baseball outfielder

References

External links

BTWHS Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Washington, Booker T. High School African-American history in Memphis, Tennessee Public high schools in Tennessee High schools in Memphis, Tennessee Historically segregated African-American schools in Tennessee

History

Race to the Top

Notable alumni

See also

References

External links