Cleveland High School was a public high school that served students in grades 912, located in

Cleveland, Mississippi Cleveland is a city and one of two county seats of Bolivar County, Mississippi, United States, the other seat being Rosedale, Mississippi, Rosedale. The Cleveland population was 11,199 as of the 2020 United States census. Cleveland has a large c ...

. After it and East Side High were ordered to consolidate, it was renamed Cleveland Central High school, and East Side High was converted to Cleveland Central Middle School. It was a part of the Cleveland School District.

History

Cleveland High School opened its doors October 15, 1906, with A. K. Eckles as principal. The original building, a two-story colonial design with four classrooms, was located where the present building now stands. The school's first athletic event was a baseball game in April 1907. The CHS band was first organized in 1909 here is strong evidence that suggests CHS had the first high school band in Mississippi The first graduation was held in June 1910; there were four graduates. An addition with an auditorium was added to the original structure in 1916. Fire destroyed this building in 1918.Craddock, Steven Culver (2009). ''A Greater Degree of Pardonable Pride: A Centennial History of Cleveland High School, 1906-2006.'' A new, three-story brick building, designed to be the "largest and handsomest" school in Mississippi, was completed at the same location in 1921. On this campus in 1922, the movement that led to the creation of

Delta State University Delta State University (DSU) is a public university in Cleveland, Mississippi, a city in the Mississippi Delta. History The school was established in 1924 by the State of Mississippi, using the facilities of the former Bolivar County Agricultu ...

began. CHS was the sponsor of Cleveland's first Boy Scout troop, and, at various times, served as the meeting place of the First Methodist Church, the local Jewish community, the Rotary Club, the Exchange Club, and the Delta Medical Association. Also in 1922, CHS was accredited by the

Southern Association of Colleges and Schools The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) is a regional educational accreditor recognized by the United States Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. As of 2022, the organization oversees ap ...

. The school's first of 30 state championships was won in 1935 in Debate. During World War II, some 600 CHS alumni and students served in the U.S. military; sixteen died in the war. The epicenter of patriotic activity in Cleveland during World War II, Cleveland High School's second building was destroyed by fire Christmas Eve, 1945. The present high school building and cafeteria were completed in 1950, the band hall in 1963. Integrated in 1965, CHS was the first public school in the

Mississippi Delta The Mississippi Delta, also known as the Yazoo–Mississippi Delta, or simply the Delta, is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi (and portions of Arkansas and Louisiana) that lies between the Mississippi and Yazo ...

to admit black students. Integration came as a result of a racial discrimination lawsuit first filed in 1965.Lerner, Sharon.
A School District That Was Never Desegregated
(). ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 185 ...

''. February 5, 2015. Retrieved on May 18, 2016. About 200 black students who were otherwise assigned to East Side High School enrolled in Cleveland High School immediately after the Cleveland School District established a "freedom of choice" plan allowing students to transfer to any school in the district. In 2000, hundreds of alumni, students, and parents volunteered thousands of man-hours giving the school a much-needed makeover. Cleveland High School celebrated its 100th birthday in October 2006 with a three-day Centennial Celebration that was attended by more than 700 alumni and guests. In October 2008, a Mississippi Historical Marker honoring Margaret Wade ('29) was placed on the school's front lawn. The school's 100th graduating class celebrated its commencement in May 2010. By 2015 Cleveland High had become racially mixed, while the other high school in Cleveland, East Side High retained an overwhelming black majority. Sharon Lerner of ''

'' wrote that "a fondness for the current incarnation of Cleveland High" had developed, and that some Cleveland residents did not want to risk this by forcing Cleveland High to consolidate with East Side. This remained a possibility as the racial discrimination suit was still active. Jim Tims, a former member of the Cleveland School Board, stated that by consolidating the schools the single high school would be about 30% white, and that since White people do not wish to be "a small minority" they would engage in

white flight The white flight, also known as white exodus, is the sudden or gradual large-scale migration of white people from areas becoming more racially or ethnoculturally diverse. Starting in the 1950s and 1960s, the terms became popular in the Racism ...

and enroll in nearby majority white private schools. In January 2016, test scores for Cleveland High School grade 10 students who had participated in the PARCC assessment of English skills were 18 points above the state average and 28 points above the 267,000-student PARCC average. Principal Steven Craddock commented: "this proves what we have known for some time...that our students are just as sharp as teens in other, more affluent parts of our state...it also shows that CHS is striving to live up to our motto, 'Ever to Excel'." In May 2016 the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi ordered the school district to consolidate the Cleveland High with East Side High School for desegregation purposes.Brown, Emma.
Judge orders Mississippi school district to desegregate, 62 years after Brown v. Board of Education
" ''

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''. May 16, 2016. Retrieved on May 17, 2016. Cleveland Central High School now houses all high school students, while the former East Side High School (now Cleveland Central Middle school) now houses all middle school students.Home page
Cleveland School District. Retrieved on May 21, 2016. "United States District Court Judge Debra Brown on Friday May 13, 2016, adopted the Department of Justice's plan to consolidate middle and high schools in the Cleveland School District, which will result in one high school at Cleveland High School and one middle school at East Side High." The final graduation ceremony was held in 2017.

Athletics

During its final year, Cleveland High School competed in the

Mississippi High School Activities Association The Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA) is the official sanctioning body of all public and some private junior high and high school academic and athletic competitions in the state of Mississippi. It is a non-profit organization ...

(MHSAA) 4A athletics in 12 different sports. Cleveland High maintains programs in

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

, cross country,

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

softball Softball is a Variations of baseball, variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) ...

cheerleading Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense Physical exercise, physical activity. It can be performed to motivate s ...

dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

, and

powerlifting Powerlifting is a competitive strength athletics, strength sport that consists of three attempts at maximal weight on three lifts: Squat (exercise), squat, bench press, and deadlift. As in the sport of Olympic weightlifting, it involves the athle ...

, as well as a competitive

marching Marching refers to the organized, uniformed, steady walking forward in either rhythmic or route-step time; and, typically, it refers to overland movements on foot of military troops and units under field orders. Marching is often perform ...

and concert band program. The band program was the first of its kind in the state of

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

and remained the only competitive corp style marching band in the

region.

Notable alumni

* David Bowen,

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

from

* Charles Clark, U.S. Court of Appeals judge (1969–1992) * Kay Beevers Cobb, Mississippi Supreme Court Justice (1999–2007) * Pat Coleman, professional

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

player for the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. The Patriots compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The Pa ...

and

Houston Oilers The Houston Oilers were a professional American football team that played in Houston, Texas, from its founding in 1960 Houston Oilers season, 1960 to 1996 Houston Oilers season, 1996. The Houston Oilers began play as a charter member of the Ame ...

* John Eubanks,

CFL The Canadian Football League (CFL; , LCF) is a professional Canadian football league in Canada. It comprises nine teams divided into two divisions, with four teams in the East Division and five in the West Division. The CFL is the highest pr ...

player for the

Calgary Stampeders The Calgary Stampeders are a professional Canadian football team based in Calgary, Alberta. The Stampeders compete in the West Division (CFL), West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The club plays its home games at McMahon Stadium a ...

* Kevin Rogers,

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

pitcher for the

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

* Sarita Simmons, member of the

Mississippi State Senate The Mississippi State Senate is the upper house of the Mississippi Legislature, the State legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of Mississippi. The Senate, along with the Lower house, lower Mississippi House of Represen ...

for the 13th district * Margaret Wade American basketball player, coach, and

Basketball Hall of Fame The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and pres ...

inductee *

Wirt Williams Wirt Williams (August 21, 1921 – June 29, 1986) was an American novelist, journalist, and professor of English. Early life and education Born on August 21, 1921, on the campus of the Goodman, Mississippi-based agricultural school headed ...

, American novelist, journalist, and professor of English

References

External links

* {{authority control Public high schools in Mississippi Schools in Bolivar County, Mississippi 1906 establishments in Mississippi Educational institutions established in 1906 Cleveland, Mississippi 2017 disestablishments in Mississippi Educational institutions disestablished in 2017