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

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

located north of

Downtown Memphis Downtown Memphis 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 Interstate 240 (Tennessee), Interstate 240 to the east, where ...

, on the southside of

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The school was administered by the Memphis City Schools 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 was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

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 Reco ...

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 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 ...

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, and orator. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the primary leader in the African-American community and of the contemporary Black elite#United S ...

. 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. He emerged as a prominent figure in postwar R&B an ...

- Memphis, R&B singer * J. Blackfoot - Memphis soul singer, member of The Soul Children, best known for his hit song "Taxi" *

The Bar-Kays The Bar-Kays is an American funk band formed in 1964. The band had dozens of charting singles from the 1960s to the 1980s, including " Soul Finger" (US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 number 17, R&B number 3) in 1967, "Son of Shaft" (R&B number 10) in ...

- Memphis 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 mayor of the District of Columbia from 1979 to 1991 and 1995 to 1999. A Democratic Party (United States), Democrat, Barr ...

- mayor of Washington, D.C. * Harvey Branch - professional baseball player *

Lucie Campbell Lucie Eddie Campbell (born Lucie Eddie Campbell-Williams; April 30, 1885 – January 3, 1963) was an American composer and director of gospel music. She was also an educator and advocate for social justice. She consistently innovated in the c ...

- evangelist and songwriter * W. W. Herenton - first African-American mayor of Memphis * George W. 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 Advancement ...

- 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 an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...

* Verdell Mathis -

Negro league baseball The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be used narrowly for the seven relativel ...

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 Bo ...

- Memphis 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 artis ...

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

David Porter (musician) David Porter (born November 21, 1941) is an American record producer, singer, songwriter, 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 - academic, civil rights activist, and school board official * Oscar Reed - 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 Re ...

- Stax Records writer and performer * Fred Valentine - Major League Baseball outfielder *

Maurice White Maurice White (December 19, 1941 – February 4, 2016) was an American musician, best known as the founder, leader, main songwriter and chief producer of the band Earth, Wind & Fire, also serving as the band's co-lead singer with Philip Bailey. ...

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

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

- professional basketball player

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