David T. Howard High School was a school for African American students in Atlanta, Georgia. It has many prominent alumni.[1] In 2018 the school was being renovated for a planned 2020 reopening as a middle school.[2] Alumni include Martin Luther King Jr., Maynard Jackson who became Atlanta's first Black mayor, Walt Frazier who played basketball at the school, Lonnie King, Vernon Jordan, Clarence Cooper (judge), and gold medal-winning Olympian Mildred McDaniel Singleton.[2][1] It is located at 551 John Wesley Dobbs Avenue. It was named for prominent businessman and philanthropist David Tobias Howard.
History
David Tobias Howard with his wife and mother, c. 1900
The school opened in 1923 as an Elementary School.[3] It became a high school in 1948.[2]
The school was named for David T. Howard, a former slave who owned Atlanta's largest black-owned undertaking business and founded its first African American owned bank. He was a noted philanthropist, particularly focused on educating children. He donated thousands of dollars to poor children to be educated, to Tuskegee University, and donated the 7.5 acre campus for the elementary school which was named after him.[2]
Martin Luther King Jr. attended the school from 1936 until 1940.[4]
The school building is brick.[4] It closed in 1976.[2]
In 2021, it reopened as David T. Howard Middle School.
As of 2019, the former school is being rebuilt for a fall 2020 opening as a new middle school feeding into Midtown High School (Atlanta). The school will retain the Howard name, being called David T. Howard Middle School.[6] The renovations will cost an estimated $52 million.[7]
Alumni
Eldrin Bell,[8] Atlanta police chief and Clayton County Commission chair.[9]
^"History". www.davidthowardnationalalumni.org. DT Howard Alumni Association. February 9, 2020. Archived from the original on February 9, 2020. Retrieved February 9, 2020. In 1923, the City of Atlanta opened the David T. Howard Grammar School located in the block bounded by Houston, Randolph, Howell and Irwin Streets. Howard took the place of three grammar schools, two of which opened in 1866 for children of freed slaves, Storrs, Summer Hill and the Houston Street School which became the first Atlanta Public School with an all- Negro staff. Since its construction in 1923 David T. Howard School educated many of Atlanta's most notable citizens.
^Terrell, Ross (April 10, 2018). "Historic David T. Howard School To Open Again After Four Decades". 90.1 FM WABE. Archived from the original on February 9, 2020. Retrieved February 9, 2020. Renovations to the school are projected to cost $52 million and will be partially funded with a special purpose local option sales tax.
