Benjamin Franklin High School is a

public high school A state school, public school, or government school is a primary school, primary or secondary school that educates all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in part by taxation and operated by the government of the state. State-f ...

located in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

. The school, located north of Center City, is a part of the

School District of Philadelphia The School District of Philadelphia (SDP) is the school district that includes all school district-operated State schools, public schools in Philadelphia. Established in 1818, it is the largest school district in Pennsylvania and the eighth-lar ...

. Franklin serves sections of

North Philadelphia North Philadelphia, nicknamed North Philly, is a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is immediately north of Center City, Philadelphia, Center City. Though the full extent of the region is somewhat vague, "North Philadelphia" is regarded as ...

and Center City. Franklin is a mostly

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

school.China's clout echoes in classes, To spread the word on global needs, schools add Mandarin instruction. Paul Vallas hopes students join the crowd and learn a language spoken by 1.3 billion.
''

The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', often referred to simply as ''The Inquirer'', is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded on June 1, 1829, ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is the third-longest continuously operating da ...

''. Monday October 31, 2005. B01 Local News Philadelphia & its Suburbs. Retrieved on November 8, 2011
See clipping at
Newspapers.com In the late 1960s, there was a student-led effort to rename the school in honor of recently slain

Malcolm X Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an African American revolutionary, Islam in the United States, Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figur ...

. This effort officially failed, but some students still refer to the school by this name. Around 2005, Franklin began housing a

charter school A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. It is independent in the sense that it operates according to the basic principle of autono ...

catering to

Chinese Americans Chinese Americans are Americans of Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans have ancestors from mainland China, Hong Kong ...

. In addition, as part of an international studies academy, it added

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin ( ; zh, s=, t=, p=Guānhuà, l=Mandarin (bureaucrat), officials' speech) is the largest branch of the Sinitic languages. Mandarin varieties are spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers over a large geographical area that stretch ...

as a foreign language for study in 2005. The new international studies focus attracted 40 new students from the Chinatown area.

History

Although housed in the 37-year-old building previously used by Central High School, Benjamin Franklin High School was dedicated on April 26, 1939. Two-thirds of the faculty and two-thirds of the student body were carried over from Central. Franklin's first principal, Dr. A. Oswald Michener, was to coordinate "the century-old tradition of Central High School with the modern spirit of scientific inquiry which Franklin represented." Following World War II, nearly 5,000 returning veterans were provided with twelve to fourteen months of special classes at Franklin under the auspices of the Veterans Accelerated Program. In 1947, there were 1,800 veterans in classes, and graduates had enrolled in over 200 colleges and universities, including Harvard. During the McCarthy era, Francis P. Jennings, President of the Philadelphia Teachers Union and a social studies teacher at Franklin, was suspended for alleged communist activity. Testifying before the

House Un-American Activities Committee The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative United States Congressional committee, committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 19 ...

, he declared that teachers were required to sacrifice constitutional rights to qualify for employment. Conservative economist and columnist Walter E. Williams, who graduated in 1954, was a critic of Franklin, but praised English teacher, Dr. Martin Rosenberg. Wesley Cook, although he never graduated, was a student at Franklin. In 1969, as a fourteen-year-old, he was inspired by a

Black Panther Party The Black Panther Party (originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense) was a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist and Black Power movement, black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newto ...

newspaper to become involved in that movement and was one of those who proposed changing the school's name to honor

. Subsequently, at the suggestion of a Kenyan teacher of African studies at Franklin, he adopted a "class" African name, Mumia, to which, following the birth of a son, he later added Abu-Jamal. As Mumia Abu-Jamal, he was convicted of murdering a police officer and while in prison became well known as an author. Over a period of many years, Franklin athletes have had successful careers. George Nock, Wendell Tucker, and J. T. Turner played for the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

, and Fred Carter, Paul Graham, Pooh Richardson, and Randy Woods played for the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

. Bryant Jennings is a heavyweight championship boxer. In September 1979 the school opened up to the first 9th graders and females. The class of 1979–1980 graduated its first and only female, Iris Chase, who wore a white and red robe instead of a blue and gold one. Franklin was one of the first high schools in

serving the African American community. By the late 1980s the school had become run down and plagued with violence. Conditions at Franklin worsened when the

cut the school's funding due to many economic problems in the area. Dropouts and transfers were common. There were 164 freshmen enrolled in 1986, and another 71 entered the following fall, but only 181 graduated in 1990, a loss of 22 percent. In 2007, a $4 million renovation was made. The renovations included the gymnasium, auditorium and classrooms, and front entrance facade, as well as the replacement of doors and windows. In order to create new classroom space, a small rooftop building addition was constructed, with the addition of new steel dunnage and air handling units. In 2011, James Brunson Lauren Murphy-Sands and Larry Conlan started a rugby team. Their story was made into a 2019 film called '' The Nomads.'' In January 2016 a fight occurred in a hallway, and an individual fired a gun. Nobody was injured by the gunfire, and one student was arrested.

Zoned neighborhoods

Franklin serves several areas, including the Fairmount, Spring Garden, the section of Northern Liberties south of Poplar Street, and portions of Center City, including

Chinatown Chinatown ( zh, t=唐人街) is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, O ...

, Old City, Rittenhouse Square, Logan Square, and Society Hill. In 2005 Chinatown was zoned to Franklin.Snyder, Susan.
Selling schools – to families, A new campaign touts 20 Center City sites. Its aim: Retain the middle class. Schools pitch aims at stemming flight of the middle class
" ''

''. Monday August 22, 2005. City-D A01 Local. Retrieved on November 8, 2011
First page clipping
an
second page (A7) clipping
at Newspapers.com Franklin currently serves Harrison Plaza, Richard Allen Housing Projects and Francisville.

Feeder patterns

Feeder K–8 schools include:High School Directory Fall 2017 Admissions

Archive
.

. p. 30/70. Retrieved on November 16, 2016. * Bache-Martin * Dunbar * Greenfield * General Philip Kearny * McCall * Meade * Morris * Spring Garden * Laura Wheeler Waring Former feeder K–8 schools include: * Ferguson * Harrison * Hartranft

Notable alumni

* Mumia Abu-Jamal, political activist and journalist convicted of murdering Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner * Bootsie Barnes, jazz saxophonist * Fred Carter, NBA shooting guard (1969–1977) * Major Coxson, Philadelphia drug kingpin in the early-1970s * Paul Graham, NBA shooting guard (1991–1994) * Bryant Jennings, boxer * Brad Lomax, disability rights activist * George Nock, NFL running back (1969–1972) * Pooh Richardson, NBA point guard (1989–1999) * Nicodemo Scarfo, boss of the

Philadelphia Crime Family The Philadelphia crime family, also known as the Bruno–Scarfo crime family,< ...

* Wendell Tucker, NFL flanker and wide receiver (1967–1970) * J.T. Turner, NFL right guard (1977–1984) * Walter E. Williams, economist and professor * Randy Woods, NBA point guard (1992–1996)

References

External links

Benjamin Franklin High School
*
GreatSchools.net
{{Coord, 39.9636, -75.1621, region:US-PA_type:edu, display=title Franklin School District of Philadelphia Public high schools in Pennsylvania Charter schools in Pennsylvania Spring Garden, Philadelphia