James A. Garfield High School is a public high school in the

Seattle Public Schools Seattle Public Schools is the largest Public school (government funded), public school district in the state of Washington (state), Washington. The school district serves almost all of Seattle. Additionally it includes sections of Boulevard Park, ...

district of

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

, United States. It is named after

James A. Garfield James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831 – September 19, 1881) was the 20th president of the United States, serving from March 4, 1881 until his death six months latertwo months after he was shot by an assassin. A lawyer and Civil War gene ...

, the 20th

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...

. Located along 23rd Avenue between E. Alder and E. Jefferson Streets in Seattle's urban Central District, Garfield draws students from all over the city. Garfield is also one of two options for the district's Highly Capable Cohort for academically highly gifted students, with the other being Ingraham International School. As a result, the school offers many college-level classes, ranging from

calculus Calculus, originally called infinitesimal calculus or "the calculus of infinitesimals", is the mathematical study of continuous change, in the same way that geometry is the study of shape, and algebra is the study of generalizations of arithm ...

-based

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

Advanced Placement Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the United States and Canada created by the College Board which offers college-level curricula and examinations to high school students. American colleges and universities may grant placement and course ...

(AP) studio art.

History

James A. Garfield High School was founded in 1920 as East High School at its current location. The first graduating class consisted of 282 students who transferred from Broadway High School. In three years, the school's enrollment forced the 12-room building to be scrapped for the Jacobean-style building designed by

Floyd Naramore Floyd Archibald Naramore (July 21, 1879 in Warren, Illinois – October 29, 1970 in Seattle) was a Seattle architect. He was Seattle Schools Architect from 1919 to 1932, and he was a founding partner, in 1943, of the firm that today is known ...

. In 1929, the city commissioned the architect to design an addition for the school as enrollment peaked at 2,300 students. Garfield High School has long played a key role in its neighborhood, the Central District. As the Central District has changed, so has the school's population. In its early decades, the school was noted for its Jewish, Japanese and Italian populations. After World War II, the neighborhood became predominantly African-American and by 1961, 51 percent of Garfield students were black, compared to only 5.3 percent of the general Seattle school district population. In the late 1960s and 1970s, Garfield was at the center of the school district's attempts to avoid

forced busing Race-integration busing in the United States (also known simply as busing, Integrated busing or by its critics as forced busing) was the practice of assigning and transporting students to schools within or outside their local school districts in ...

through various plans, including turning it into a "

magnet school In the U.S. education system, magnet schools are public schools with specialized courses or curricula. "Magnet" refers to how the schools draw students from across the normal boundaries defined by authorities (usually school boards) as school ...

". This began the focus on music and science that persist to the present day. The school introduced an APP Program in 1979, and due to the success of this program, an alternative program, IBx, was opened for APP students at Ingraham International High School in North Seattle to help relieve pressure on an overcrowded Garfield. Notable people who have spoken at Garfield include

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

and Jesse Jackson. Civil rights activist

Stokely Carmichael Kwame Ture (; born Stokely Standiford Churchill Carmichael; June 29, 1941November 15, 1998) was a prominent organizer in the civil rights movement in the United States and the global pan-African movement. Born in Trinidad, he grew up in the Unite ...

spoke at the school in 1967. Future

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

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 ...

gave a speech in 2006 regarding "Innovation in Education". During a 2012 school field trip, one of the school's students allegedly raped another student. The school's mishandling of the ensuing investigation resulted in an ongoing federal investigation of the school district for Title IX sexual violence violations.

Remodel

The buildings have lasted for more than eight decades, but they were partially demolished in a sweeping redesign of the school that began in June 2006. The remodel was mostly completed by the fall of 2008, making the class of 2009 the only class to attend classes in both the old and new buildings. There was a movement to hold off the remodeling to preserve the building's history, including a city initiative to preserve the Quincy Jones auditorium as a historic site, thereby blocking the remodeling. The new design has a state-of-the-art performing arts center. After its renovation, Garfield had become the second most expensive high school in the state, after

Stadium High School Stadium High School is a public high school in Tacoma, Washington, and a historic landmark. It is part of Tacoma Public Schools, or Tacoma School District No. 10 and is located in the Stadium District, near downtown Tacoma. The original buildin ...

, with Stadium High at $106 million and Garfield at $105 million. The school reopened in time for 2008 classes on September 3. Faculty and students vacated their temporary quarters at Lincoln High School at the end of the 2007–2008 school year.

Terracotta work

Garfield High School's architecture makes extensive use of

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, a ...

. Among the many terracotta details worked into the building are emblems of botany, the trades, arts and crafts, industry, intelligence, and the sciences. File:Seattle - Garfield High School terracotta - botany 01A.jpg, "Botany" (south face) File:Seattle - Garfield High School terracotta - trades 01A.jpg, "Trades" (south face) File:Seattle - Garfield High School terracotta - arts & crafts 01A.jpg, "Arts & Crafts" (west face) File:Seattle - Garfield High School terracotta - industry 01A.jpg, "Industry" (east face) File:Seattle - Garfield High School terracotta - intelligence 01A.jpg, "Intelligence" (east face) File:Seattle - Garfield High School terracotta - sciences 01A.jpg, "Sciences" (west face)

Academics

Of the approximately 400 students who graduated in 2011, 70 percent planned to attend four-year colleges, and 20 percent planned to attend two-year colleges. Garfield has over 200 students in IEP (Individualized Learning) and ELL (English Language Learners) programs, along with 415 APP (Accelerated Progress Program) students. The school currently offers 21

courses and 10 honors courses. In 2012, the mean reading, math and writing

SAT The SAT ( ) is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. Since its debut in 1926, its name and scoring have changed several times; originally called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, it was later called the Schol ...

scores for Garfield students were 575, 578 and 569, respectively.
Languages offered are Spanish language, Spanish, French, and

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

. Garfield was one of 14 schools in King County in 2007 to receive the "School of Distinction" award from the office of superintendent of public instruction for making the most progress over six years in reading and writing on the WASL. The school has a silver medal of distinction from ''U.S. News & World Report'' in 2008 and 2009 for being among the top-performing high schools in terms of college readiness. The school is noted for producing a number of National Merit Scholars each year, and Garfield consistently produces more National Merit Scholars each year than any other public school in Washington state. Garfield frequently competes for the highest number of National Merit Scholars of any school in the state, including private schools. Garfield students make up more than 70 percent of the Seattle Public School students who take AP exams. Each year there are many

valedictorian Valedictorian is an academic title for the highest-performing student of a graduating class of an academic institution. The valedictorian is commonly determined by a numerical formula, generally an academic institution's grade point average (GPA ...

s, most of whom go on to top universities. In June 2005, 44 valedictorians graduated. In recent years, however, the school has faced widespread criticism that white students are served through AP and honors programs, and black students are not supported. During the 2006–2007 school year Garfield offered more than 120 different classes across nine departments, including an extensive selection of advanced classes. Garfield students can take classes from local community colleges through a program called

Running Start Running Start is a dual credit enrollment program in Washington, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Montana and Illinois which allows high school juniors and seniors to attend college courses numbered 100 or above, while completing high school. It is simila ...

, and online courses from

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

's EPGY and

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

's CTY program. Some students attend on-campus courses at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

Testing controversy

In January 2013, the entire teaching body of Garfield High School refused to administer the standardized Measures of Academic Progress, or MAP, which is administered system-wide, three times per year. The teachers called the tests useless and a waste of instructional time. After their protest became public, teachers at local schools nearby such as Ballard High School and

Chief Sealth International High School Chief Sealth International High School (CSIHS) is a public high school in the Seattle Public Schools district of Seattle, Washington (U.S. state), Washington. Opened in 1957 in southern West Seattle, Seattle, West Seattle, Chief Sealth students c ...

joined the movement. The

American Federation of Teachers The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is the second largest teacher's labor union in America (the largest being the National Education Association). The union was founded in Chicago. John Dewey and Margaret Haley were founders. About 60 per ...

has endorsed the school's boycott of the tests.

Athletics

Seattle - Garfield High School soccer practice 01A

Garfield athletics have been strong historically. Athletic successes for the 1950s included four city football championships, two tennis titles, two baseball championships, and a state AA tournament trophy in basketball. The boys basketball team has won the most Washington state championships in state history. Garfield basketball teams have won many regional and state titles. The boys basketball team has won the state championship 16 times and was the runner-up eight times since 1949. The team has notable alumni, including

Brandon Roy Brandon Dawayne Roy (born July 23, 1984) is an American basketball coach and former player. He serves as the head coach of the boys' basketball team at Garfield High School in Seattle. Roy played six seasons in the National Basketball Associati ...

(GHS c/o 2002),

Tony Wroten Tony LeonDre Wroten Jr. (born April 13, 1993) is an American professional basketball player. He played college basketball for the Washington Huskies, where he was a first-team all-conference selection in the Pac-12, before being drafted by the Me ...

(GHS c/o 2011), and

alumnus

Will Conroy William James Conroy (born December 8, 1982) is an American professional basketball player and coach. Amateur career Conroy attended and played competitively at Garfield High School in Seattle, and played college basketball at the University of ...

. The girls team boasts alumna

Joyce Walker Joyce Walker (born 1960 or 1961) is an American women's basketball player who is most renowned for being the third woman to join the Harlem Globetrotters, following fellow LSU All American, Jackie White. Walker was a basketball star at Garf ...

(GHS c/o 1980), who is best known as the third woman to join the Harlem Globetrotters. The girls team won their third state championship in 2005. Both the girls and boys teams were state champions in 1980, 1987, and 2020. In 2001, the boys swimming and diving team won the state championship. In 2007, the girls swimming and diving team won the state championship. Garfield won state titles in boys and girls track in 1987 and 2017. The boys cross country team won the Metro League championship in 2016. The football team made national headlines when they knelt during the U.S. national anthem to protest an allegedly racist verse continued within and

police brutality in the United States Police brutality is the repression by personnel affiliated with law enforcement when dealing with suspects and civilians. The term is also applied to abuses by "corrections" personnel in municipal, state, and federal prison camps, including mi ...

. Their protest continued for the entirety of the 2016 season. Players on the team stated that they had received death threats and had their car's tires slashed due to the protests. The fastpitch softball team made history in 2019 when they swept the postseason, winning the Metro League championship, Sea-King District championship, and WIAA 3A State Championship. The first time for a Seattle school. They defeated Yelm 10–6 in the championship game.

Programs, clubs, and activities

Drama

In 2005, Garfield's performance of ''

Cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or d ...

'' won the Outstanding Program and Poster Design award and Special Honors in Educational Impact and Student Achievement from the 5th Avenue Theatre. Subsequent musicals have been unable to enter the 5th Avenue Awards due to scheduling. One of the main draws of Garfield's drama program is its large student-led Drama Club, an important element that is missing from many other local area schools. The Garfield Drama Club produces collections of short one-act plays, and a main stage Autumn Show every year, all of which are directed and produced by current students. The department also performs two teacher-directed shows per year: a Children's Show for local elementary schools, and a Spring Musical.

Newspaper

''The Messenger'' is Garfield's monthly student-run newspaper. ''The Messenger'' has earned awards from the Journalism Education Association and the National Scholastic Press Association: placing in Best of Show in the JEA/NSPA Spring National High School Journalism Conventions and winning its most prestigious honor, the Pacemaker Award, in 1997 and 2006. A column from the paper was reprinted by ''All About Jazz'' in 2004. In 2006 and 2007, staff reporters won the NSPA's Brasler Prize.

Languages

The Latin language club is affiliated with the National Junior Classical League and remains one of the largest local chapters.

Robotics

Garfield has two ''FIRST'' Tech Challenge robotics teams: team 4042, Nonstandard Deviation and team 12788, Ultraviolet. Team 4042 was founded in 2009, and received the Rockwell Collins Innovate award at the 2018 West-Super Regional Championship and Washington State Championship, ultimately attending the Houston FIRST Championship in April 2018.

Policy debate

Garfield is one of two schools in

with an active policy debate program. One of Garfield's teams beat Ingraham in the finals of the 2019 season's culminating tournament to become state champions.

Music

Seattle - Garfield High School Quincy Jones Performance Center 01A

The music program at Garfield High School has won numerous awards. Several notable musicians attended the school, including

Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...

Lil Tracy Jazz Ishmael Butler (born October 3, 1995), professionally known as Lil Tracy, is an American rapper and singer. He was also known under the name Yung Bruh during the beginning of his career. Tracy is best known for his collaborations with the l ...

Quincy Jones Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (born March 14, 1933) is an American record producer, musician, songwriter, composer, arranger, and film and television producer. His career spans 70 years in the entertainment industry with a record of 80 Grammy Award n ...

Macklemore Benjamin Hammond Haggerty (born June 19, 1983), better known by his stage name Macklemore ( ; (formerly Professor Macklemore), is an American rapper and songwriter. A native of Seattle, Washington, he has collaborated with producer Ryan Lewi ...

, and

Ernestine Anderson Ernestine Anderson (November 11, 1928 – March 10, 2016) was an American jazz and blues singer. In a career spanning more than six decades, she recorded over 30 albums. She was nominated four times for a Grammy Award. She sang at Carnegie Hall, ...

Vocal department

The choirs at Garfield include a Treble Choir, Concert Choir and a Vocal Jazz group. In 2009, the vocal jazz ensemble received a special commendation for its performance at Lionel Hampton.

Orchestra

The orchestra program includes a

symphony orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, ce ...

, a concert orchestra, and a chamber music program. Every year, many students from the orchestra play in the

Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras (SYSO) is the largest youth symphony organization and youth orchestra training program in the United States, as well as the eighth oldest. Programs SYSO-in-the-Schools supports public school instrumental music pr ...

, often in principal positions. Garfield students also play in the Seattle Conservatory of Music Starling Scholar Chamber Orchestra, and many community ensembles. Garfield orchestra members have had their original

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography *Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include v ...

s debuted by the

Seattle Symphony The Seattle Symphony is an American orchestra based in Seattle, Washington. Since 1998, the orchestra is resident at Benaroya Hall. The orchestra also serves as the accompanying orchestra for the Seattle Opera. History Beginnings The orchestra ...

and SYSO. In 1995, Garfield guest conductor

Gerard Schwarz Gerard Schwarz (born August 19, 1947), also known as Gerry Schwarz or Jerry Schwarz, is an American symphony conductor and trumpeter. As of 2019, Schwarz serves as the Artistic and Music Director of Palm Beach Symphony and the Director of Orche ...

, music director of the

, said, "I don’t recall hearing a high school orchestra perform anywhere in this country on such a high level." Garfield has won numerous first-place awards in festivals around the world, including the Best Orchestra for

Downbeat Magazine ' (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chi ...

in both 1999 and 2007, and the National Orchestra Cup in 2011. The Garfield Symphony Orchestra has also toured and performed in Japan, Europe, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...

and

Alice Tully Hall Alice Tully Hall is a concert hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in the Upper West Side neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The hall is named for Alice Tully, a New York performer and philanthropist whose donations assist ...

in New York.

Jazz Band

Garfield's

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

program has won state, national and international awards and accolades in big band, combo and individual categories. Jazz Ensemble I has toured Europe numerous times, visiting the Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Italy, and playing at venues including the

Montreux Montreux (, , ; frp, Montrolx) is a Swiss municipality and town on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Alps. It belongs to the district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, and has a population of approximat ...

and

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

Jazz Festivals. It has also attended the International Association of Jazz Educators' conference, as well as the

Essentially Ellington Competition The Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival is an annual high school jazz festival and competition that takes place every May at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City. The festival is aimed at encouraging young musician ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. It is the only band to win the first-place trophy in consecutive years (2003–2004 and 2009–2010) and the only band to have been invited to Essentially Ellington for ten consecutive years. Overall showings at Essentially Ellington have included 1999 (honorable mention), 2000 (honorable mention), 2002 (2nd place), 2003 (1st place), 2004 (1st place), 2006 (3rd place), 2008 (2nd place), 2009 (1st place), 2010 (1st place), 2013 (Finalist), 2014 (Finalist), 2015 (Finalist), 2016 (Finalist), 2019 (Finalist) and 2020 (Finalist). Its consistent placement in national competitions and long history of national recognition indicate its status as one of the best high school jazz bands in the country. Among the many other awards are seven sweepstakes wins since 2000 at the

Clark College Clark College is a public community college in Vancouver, Washington. With 11,500 students, Clark College is the largest institution of higher education in southwest Washington. Founded in 1933 as a private two-year junior college, Clark Colleg ...

Jazz Festival (

Vancouver, Washington Vancouver is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, located in Clark County. Incorporated in 1857, Vancouver has a population of 190,915 as of the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest city in Was ...

), three sweepstakes wins (including two by Jazz Band II) at the Bellevue High School jazz festival (

Bellevue, Washington Bellevue ( ) is a city in the Eastside region of King County, Washington, United States, located across Lake Washington from Seattle. It is the third-largest city in the Seattle metropolitan area and has variously been characterized as a s ...

), six sweepstakes awards at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival ( Moscow, Idaho), and others wins at the

Reno Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the ...

and

Mount Hood Mount Hood is a potentially active stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc. It was formed by a subduction zone on the Pacific coast and rests in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located about east-southeast of Portlan ...

jazz festivals.

Notable alumni

Andrew Callaghan Andrew Thomas Callaghan (born April 23, 1997) is an American journalist. He is the creator and star of the YouTube series ''All Gas No Brakes'' and '' Channel 5''. Early life Andrew Thomas Callaghan was born in Philadelphia on April 23, 1997 ...

, Journalist, YouTube personality *

, jazz and blues singer *

Debbie Armstrong Debra Rae "Debbie" Armstrong (born December 6, 1963) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Seattle, Washington. She was the first gold medalist from the U.S. in women's alpine skiing in 12 years, winning the giant slalom at the 1984 Wint ...

, alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist *

Fred Bassetti Fred Bassetti (January 31, 1917 in Seattle – December 5, 2013 in Oregon) was a Pacific Northwest architect and teacher. His architectural legacy includes some of the Seattle area's more recognizable buildings and spaces. The American Institute ...

, architect *

Jack Benaroya Jack A. Benaroya (July 11, 1921 – May 11, 2012) was a pioneering real estate developer who built what became the Northwest’s largest privately-held commercial real-estate empire which he sold in 1984 for $315 million. After selling his compa ...

, real-estate mogul and philanthropist *

Ishmael Butler Ishmael Reginald Butler (born July 3, 1969) is an American rapper, record producer and songwriter. He is best known for his work with such groups as Digable Planets in the 1990s and Shabazz Palaces in the 2010s. Early life Butler, who is a nati ...

, Former College Basketball Player UMASS. Grammy award-winning musician with Digable Planets and Shabazz Palaces *

Linda Lee Cadwell Linda Emery Lee Cadwell (born March 21, 1945) is a retired American teacher and writer. She is the author of the Bruce Lee biography '' Bruce Lee: The Man Only I Knew'', upon which the film '' Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story'' is based, as well as t ...

, author and widow of martial arts master and actor

Bruce Lee Bruce Lee (; born Lee Jun-fan, ; November 27, 1940 – July 20, 1973) was a Hong Kong and American martial artist and actor. He was the founder of Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial arts philosophy drawing from different combat disciplines that ...

Irwin Caplan Irwin Caplan (May 24, 1919 – February 22, 2007), nicknamed Cap, was an American illustrator, painter, designer and cartoonist, best known as the creator of ''The Saturday Evening Post'' cartoon series, ''Famous Last Words'', which led to newspap ...

, creator of the cartoon ''Famous Last Words'' *

Deandre Coleman Deandre Lamar Coleman (born January 27, 1991) is a former American football defensive tackle. He played college football at California. He was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Jacksonville Jaguars following the 2014 NFL Draft. Early yea ...

, NFL player for the

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. ...

, NBA and NBADL player *

Peter DePoe Peter DePoe (born August 21, 1943), also known as Last Walking Bear, is an American rock musician who is perhaps best known as the drummer for the Native American band Redbone. Born in Neah Bay, Washington in 1943, his tribal Ancestors are Sout ...

, drummer, Redbone * Michael B. Druxman, screenwriter, playwright, biographer, film director *

Emma Dumont Emma Dumont is an American actress, model, and dancer. She is known for her roles as Melanie Segal in the ABC Family series ''Bunheads'', as Emma Karn in the NBC series ''Aquarius'', and as Lorna Dane/Polaris in the FOX series '' The Gifted''. ...

, actress * Gisele Fox, high fashion model * Frank E. Garretson, Brigadier general, U.S. Marine Corps *

Bruce Harrell Bruce Allen Harrell (born October 10, 1958) is an American politician and attorney serving as the 57th and current mayor of Seattle, Washington. He served as a member of the Seattle City Council from District 2 from 2016 to 2020. Elected to the c ...

, mayor of Seattle *

Jeff Heath John Geoffrey Heath (April 1, 1915 – December 9, 1975) was a Canadian-born American left fielder in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played most of his career for the Cleveland Indians. He was one of the American League's most promising power ...

, former

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

player (

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive F ...

, Washington Senators,

St. Louis Browns The St. Louis Browns were a Major League Baseball team that originated in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as the Milwaukee Brewers. A charter member of the American League (AL), the Brewers moved to St. Louis, Missouri, after the 1901 season, where they p ...

, Boston Braves) * Richard Hedreen, hotelier *

, rock musician *

Steven Hill Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; ...

, actor (attended as Solomon "Sol" Krakovsky) * B. J. Johnson, swimmer *

, music producer *

Shirley Kaufman Shirley Kaufman Daleski (June 5, 1923 in Seattle - September 25, 2016 in San Francisco) was an American-Israeli poet and translator. Life Her parents immigrated from Poland. She grew up in Seattle and graduated from James A. Garfield High School ...

, poet *

Aaron Kovar Aaron Kovar (born August 14, 1993) is a retired American professional soccer player who played as a midfielder. Career Early career Kovar was part of Emerald City FC from 2009 to 2010, and then the Seattle Sounders FC Academy between 2010 and ...

, professional footballer for the Los Angeles FC *

Aki Kurose Aki Kurose (1925–1998) was an American teacher and social-justice activist who helped establish Washington state's first Head Start program and worked to increase access to education and affordable housing, particularly among low-income and ...

, activist; completed high school in Minidoka Internment Camp *

Leah LaBelle Leah LaBelle Vladowski (September 8, 1986 – January 31, 2018) was an American singer. She rose to prominence in 2004 as a contestant on the American Idol (season 3), third season of ''American Idol'', placing twelfth in the season f ...

, singer * Dave Lewis, rock musician * Peter Scott Lewis, composer * Miko Lim, fashion photographer *

(Ben Haggerty), Seattle hip hop artist * Mary McCarthy, novelist and critic *

Ari Melber Ari Naftali Melber (born March 31, 1980) is an American attorney and journalist who is the chief legal correspondent for MSNBC and host of ''The Beat with Ari Melber.'' The show premiered on July 24, 2017, and became the "longest-running" show ...

, journalist, chief legal correspondent for

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...

* William K. Nakamura, World War II

Medal of Honor The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest military decoration and is awarded to recognize American soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians and coast guardsmen who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor. ...

recipient *

Billy North William Alex North (born May 15, 1948) is a former center fielder in Major League Baseball. From 1971 to 1981, he played for the Chicago Cubs (1971–72), Oakland Athletics (1973–78), Los Angeles Dodgers (1978) and San Francisco Giants (1979– ...

, former

player (

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is located ...

Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (often referred to as the A's) are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The te ...

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Yor ...

) * Jaylen Nowell, basketball player *

Frank Okada Frank Okada (1931–2000) was an American Abstract Expressionist painter, mainly active in the Pacific Northwest. His mature style often featured brightly colored, off-kilter geometric shapes done in large format, including round canvasses; subtl ...

, painter * Robert Prince, planner of successful

Raid at Cabanatuan The Raid at Cabanatuan ( fil, Pagsalakay sa Cabanatuan), also known as the Great Raid ( fil, Ang Dakilang Pagsalakay, link=no), was a rescue of Allied prisoners of war (POWs) and civilians from a Japanese camp near Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija, Ph ...

that freed 500+ WWII prisoners * Henry Prusoff (1912–1943), tennis player * Irvine Robbins, co-founder of the

Baskin-Robbins Baskin-Robbins is an American multinational chain of ice cream and cake speciality shops owned by Inspire Brands. Based in Canton, Massachusetts, Baskin-Robbins was founded in 1945 by Burt Baskin (1913–1967) and Irv Robbins (1917–2008) in ...

ice cream parlor chain *

, former NBA Rookie of the Year and All-Star for the

Portland Trail Blazers The Portland Trail Blazers (colloquially known as the Blazers) are an American professional basketball team based in Portland, Oregon. The Trail Blazers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Con ...

and

Minnesota Timberwolves The Minnesota Timberwolves are an American professional basketball team based in Minneapolis. The Timberwolves compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. Founded in 19 ...

* Omari Salisbury, journalist, videographer, and founder of Converge Media *

Yasser Seirawan Yasser Seirawan ( ar, ياسر سيروان; born March 24, 1960) is a Syrian-born American chess grandmaster and four-time United States champion. He won the World Junior Chess Championship in 1979. Seirawan is also a published chess author an ...

, chess grandmaster *

Lynn Shelton Lynn Shelton (August 27, 1965 – May 16, 2020) was an American filmmaker, known for writing, directing, and producing such films as ''Humpday'' and ''Your Sister's Sister''. She was associated with the mumblecore genre. Early life Shelton was b ...

, film director and writer * Roger Shimomura,

sansei is a Japanese and North American English term used in parts of the world such as South America and North America to specify the children of children born to ethnic Japanese in a new country of residence. The ''nisei'' are considered the second g ...

artist *

Chester Simmons Chester Simmons III (born July 24, 1982), better known as Tre Simmons, is an American former professional basketball player. He played college basketball for Odessa, Green River CC and Washington before playing professionally in Greece, Spain, I ...

, professional basketball player * Doug Smart, college basketball player *

Isaiah Stanback Isaiah Ramon Stanback (born August 16, 1984) is a former American football wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys, New England Patriots, New York Giants, and Jacksonville Jaguars. He played college football at ...

, NFL player *

, the third woman to join the Harlem Globetrotters *

Lindy West Lindy West (born March 9, 1982) is an American writer, comedian and activist. She is the author of the essay collection '' Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman'' and a contributing opinion writer for ''The New York Times''. The topics she writes abou ...

, feminist and journalist *

Eric Wilkins Eric Lamoine Wilkins (born December 9, 1956) is a former Major League Baseball pitcher who played for one season. He pitched for the Cleveland Indians for 16 games during the 1979 Cleveland Indians season. Wilkins attended Washington State Univer ...

, former

player (

) *

, NBA player *

Minoru Yamasaki was an American architect, best known for designing the original World Trade Center in New York City and several other large-scale projects. Yamasaki was one of the most prominent architects of the 20th century. He and fellow architect Edward ...

, architect of the former

World Trade Center World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may refer to: Buildings * List of World Trade Centers * World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...

References

External links

Garfield High School
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garfield High School 1920 establishments in Washington (state) Central District, Seattle Educational institutions established in 1920 High schools in King County, Washington James A. Garfield Landmarks in Seattle Magnet schools in Washington (state) Public high schools in Washington (state) Seattle Public Schools