Carver High School (Phoenix, Arizona)

The school was built on the site of a former four-acre landfill, and was surrounded by warehouses.[2] Students who attended classes at the school said the school was built in between the two African American communities south of Downtown Phoenix at the time, and was strategically placed to serve as many African American students as possible.[2]

The site of the school was purchased for $10,500 in 1925.[4] There were initial protests to the location, due to its proximity to industrial and contaminated area.[5] Even the school board admitted at the time that the location will require "watchmen to protect children going to and from school", and that physicians admit the location is a "hot bed and nucleus of virulent contagious diseases".[4]

The school was built by general contractors Pierson & Johnson, who submitted a bid of $110,000.[4] The school was remodeled and enlarged in 1948, which included the building of new shop facilities, as well as a 1,000 seat stadium.[4]

After the school's closure, school grounds were converted into office and storage space.[2][5][4]

The school building, along with the land it sits on, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.[1][6]

The school grounds were purchased by the Phoenix Monarchs Alumni Association, a group of Carver High alumni, in 1996.[7] The school's alumni collected $200,000, including a grant by the city's Parks and Recreation Board, to buy the building.[8] Work began in 2001 to convert the site into a community cultural center and art gallery, in a partnership with the City of Phoenix which involved several million dollars of Phoenix bond funding, along with other grants.[5][7]

A report by Phoenix NPR station KJZZ noted that the school campus could have been demolished, had efforts to save it fail to materialize.[2]

Currently, the former school's main building and shop building still exist.[4], While the school's football field has been paved over[8], the nearby grandstand still exists.[4]

The campus was added to the Phoenix Historic Property Register, after the Phoenix City Council approved the addition in March 2017.[9][10] This will protect the school campus from demolition, as well as making the site eligible for city incentives to help with rehabilitation.[9]

George Washington Carver High School
Information
Former name	Phoenix Union Colored High School (1926-1943)
Type	Public, segregated
Established	13 September 1926 (1926-09-13)[11]
Closed	1954[11]
Enrollment	406 (1954[12])
Mascot	Monarchs[12]

The school opened in 1926.[11] According to Phoenix Union High School District, the school was built to accommodate the district's African American population.[11] Many contemporary sources, however, state that the school was built to segregate African American high school students.[2][5][13]

The school was the only legally segregated high school in Phoenix,[2] and it opened following anti-African American sentiments that increased, following World War I.[5]

While segregation of elementary schools in Arizona was mandated, segregation of high schools was never required under Arizona law.[5][14]

Carver High had its roots in the "Department for Colored Students" that was established at a rear room of Phoenix Union High School's Commercial Building in 1918, with one teacher.[4] The school's African American students were then housed in two small cottages that was separated from the PUHS campus by an irrigation ditch.,[4] and later housed the students at a house on 9th Street and Jefferson.[4]

The school's final location was dedicated on September 13, 1926, and opened for classes the following day.[4]

The school was renamed after George Washington Carver in 1943,[2] and it was closed in 1954,[11] a year after a judge at the Maricopa County Superior Court ruled school segregation in Phoenix high schools was unconstitutional, in the case Phillips vs. Phoenix Union High Schools and Junior College District.[5][15]

To this day, Phoenix Union High School District's website makes few references to the school's segregated past, merely stating that the school closed, following integration.[11]

The school was known for its strong academics and athletic programs, despite having deficient resources.[5] Students of the school also remember that many of the teachers there held Master's degrees, at a time when few did.[2]

• Charles "Chuck" Harrison, Industrial designer[17]
• Ira O’Neal, a member of the Tuskegee Airmen.[18]
• Coy Payne, former mayor of Chandler, Arizona and first African-American to be elected as mayor in Arizona.[18]
• William Byron Rumford, pharmacist, politician, first African American elected to a state public office in Northern California[19]
• Ed Shivers, a member of the Tuskegee Airmen.[18]

• Phoenix Union High School, also NRHP-listed

• George Washington Carver Museum