Carver High School was 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) ...

Tupelo, Mississippi Tupelo () is a city in and the county seat of Lee County, Mississippi, United States. With an estimated population of 38,300, Tupelo is the sixth-largest city in Mississippi and is considered a commercial, industrial, and cultural hub of North M ...

, United States. It served as the high school for black students until the public schools were integrated in the late 1960s. The buildings are now Carver Elementary School.

History

Before it was renamed the school was known as the Lee County Training School. As with many

black school Black schools, also referred to as "colored" schools, were racially segregated schools in the United States that originated after the American Civil War and Reconstruction era. The phenomenon began in the late 1860s during Reconstruction era w ...

s in Mississippi and throughout the South, it was called a training school in part because it was considered helpful in promoting education for blacks and in part due to local school boards preference not to call them high schools. In 1971 the schools were officially integrated, with

Tupelo High School Tupelo High School is the only public high school in Tupelo, Mississippi. The campus consists of fourteen buildings, including a Performing Arts Center, separate buildings for social studies, English, math, sciences, fine arts, and a self-conta ...

becoming the high school for students of all races. All tenth grade students, regardless of race, were placed at Carver. Carver enjoyed an arrangement with Tupelo High School wherein both teams shared a common football field, Robins Field, from 1921 until integration. Tupelo played on Friday nights and Carver on Saturdays.

Notable alumni

Frank Dowsing Frank D. Dowsing (September 3, 1951 - July 11, 1994) was the first African-American to play football for both Tupelo High School and Mississippi State University. History In the fall of 1967, Tupelo instituted a "choice" system, whereby students a ...

, first black football player at both Tupelo High School and Mississippi State attended Carver until voluntary integration was allowed in 1968. *

Etta Zuber Falconer Etta Zuber Falconer (21 November 1933 – 19 September 2002) was an educator and mathematician the bulk of whose career was spent at Spelman College, where she eventually served as department head and associate provost. She was one of the earl ...

, mathematician

References

{{authority control Schools in Lee County, Mississippi Historically segregated African-American schools in Mississippi Public high schools in Mississippi Historically black schools Former high schools in Mississippi