Shortridge High School

Indianapolis High School (which was renamed Shortridge High School in 1881) was opened in 1864, as the state of Indiana's first free public high school. Its original location was the Marion County Seminary Building. Abram C. Shortridge was recruited to become school superintendent in 1863. Shortridge was a strict educator when it came to drilling students and faculty alike. However, he was also innovative in many ways, including the hiring of female teachers and the admission of African-American students. By 1878, Shortridge High School served 502 students.[5] Roda Selleck, who began teaching art at the school in the 1880s, soon won acclaim for introducing "craftwork" – leather, pottery, jewelry, and metalwork – to the curriculum,[6] and later developed a line of pottery, "Selridge Pottery", designed by students. She remained at the school until her death in 1924.[7]

In 1876, Mary Alice Rann was the first African-American student to graduate from Shortridge High School.[8] There was a push for either integration in schools or the building of a new school for African-American students. Abram Shortridge, who had become the superintendent of IPS schools at the time, fought against the arguments from white parents, asking if they wanted to pay the taxes to build a new school just for her.[9] She was the first of a number of black students to graduate from Shortridge prior to the opening of Crispus Attucks High School.[10]

The Shortridge Senate was created in 1887 by Miss Laura Donnan.[11] High school juniors and seniors would meet at 2:30 every Friday afternoon. The senate was created in order to teach students about public speaking and politics. Based on the annual Shortridge yearbook of 1918,[12] the talking points included: daylight saving time, workmen's compensation, women's suffrage, amendments to abolish jury trials, eight-hour law, the metric system, and many others.

Found in senate records located at the Indiana Historical Society. Written in 1914-1915 by the senate of Shortridge. September 18, eight female students were instated into the senate. The senate was made up of majority young women.[13] Senators are actually students representing each actual Senator. In the case of women's suffrage, the debates the students had involved included arguments that were happening in the real debates and spanned three days, from September 25 to October 9, 1914.[14]

In a 1903 football game against Wabash College, Wabash College coach Tug Wilson substituted an African-American left tackle by the name of Samuel Gordon, and the Shortridge captain "made a scene",[15] forfeiting the game.

Although minority students attended Shortridge from its opening, the majority of Shortridge High School students were white. This changed in 1927, when Indianapolis opened its first purposely-segregated all-black school, Crispus Attucks High School; up until then, the city had only followed school segregation by custom and not by law. Notably, the creation of Crispus Attucks was in large part due to the influence of a branch of the Ku Klux Klan led by D.C. Stephenson, on the city's school board. Regardless, those who lived in an area where they could attend either Crispus Attucks High School or Shortridge High School were allowed to choose which school they wanted to attend; many of these students chose to attend Shortridge.

In 1928, Shortridge High School moved from downtown Indianapolis to a new building at its current location at 34th and Meridian Street on the north side of Indianapolis.[16]

The environment in the school in the 1950s was described in the novel Going All The Way by Shortridge High alumnus Dan Wakefield (published in 1970 and adapted to film in 1997). In 1957, a Time Magazine article named Shortridge High as one of the top 38 high schools in the United States. At the same time, however, the school began to lose students to other schools, notably the newly opened North Central High School on the city's far-north side.

Shortridge students and faculty were involved in relief efforts for World War I. Faculty in charge included Flora Love, Rosa M. R. Mikels, Mary E. Sullivan, and Virginia Claybough. Their jobs were typing, filing, and clerical work. Under direction from Red Cross, both students and teachers also knitted socks, hats, and helmets. They also purchased War Bonds. The students and teachers also provided money for the war efforts and marched in parades. Laura Donnan even had a motto in her class that was, “A penny in France is worth two pennies in your pants.”[17]

Due to the changing racial makeup of the neighborhoods that fed Shortridge, some parents on the school's Parent-Teacher Association supported redrawing the Shortridge district to find a more even racial balance. By 1964, some felt that the school had reached a crisis. A protest march that fall from the school to Indianapolis Public Schools offices was supported by 200 students. In 1965, the Indianapolis Board of School Commissioners turned Shortridge into an all-academic high school. Beginning in the 1966–67 school year, an entrance examination was required for enrollment. In the 1966–67 school year only 272 freshmen enrolled, 46% of whom were black. Though efforts were made over the next four years to increase enrollment, they were not effective. The 1966 elections saw the school board change, including the loss of Richard Lugar, a Shortridge High graduate and academic plan supporter, who ran for, and was elected as, mayor of the city of Indianapolis. By 1967, the new school board voted 5–2 to abolish the short-lived ‘Shortridge Plan’.

As the 1960s progressed, so-called "white flight" in the neighborhoods immediately surrounding the school led to a predominantly-black student body. During the 1950–1970 period, the racial demographics of the Shortridge district began to change rapidly. As an example, the Mapleton-Fall Creek neighborhood, a part of the Shortridge district, changed from 82% white to 20% white).

The United States Department of Justice filed a suit in 1968 charging de jure segregation in Indianapolis. IPS responded with a desegregation plan which addressed only one of the three underlying charges. In 1971, U.S. District Judge S. Hugh Dillin found the IPS Board of School Commissioners to be guilty of de jure segregation.[18]

Many large and small protests and causes occurred at Shortridge during the late 1960s. This was a trend seen at other local high schools, colleges, and American society in general. One in particular is sometimes referred to as "The Shortridge Incident."

In February 1969, Shortridge student Otto Breeding was arrested for "disorderly conduct" after a disagreement with school officials over appropriate clothing. He had been asked to not wear a T-shirt advertising a radical black organization. Students who felt this was unfair attempted to disrupt the school, pulling fire alarms, and chanting “Black Power” in the halls. The next day an ad hoc group of students presented the assistant principal with four demands. The response to the petition did not satisfy them. The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra was scheduled to present a concert the next day in the school's historic auditorium, Caleb Mills Hall. Approximately twenty students rose and left as the orchestra played "The Star Spangled Banner". The protesters then congregated at a youth project run by the Reverend Luther Hicks. Reverend Hicks calmed the students and helped them to plan a non-violent protest. The students returned to Shortridge and gathered in front of the building and shouted various protest chants (e.g. “Say it loud! I’m black and I’m proud.”). As the protest continued, the police were called, and thirty students and adults were taken to the Marion County Jail. Most were charged with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. One civil rights leader, Griffin Bell, was charged with inciting a riot. Marion County Prosecutor Noble Pearcy attempted to have the minor students declared "incorrigible" in an attempt to stop school unrest. This caused mixed reactions within the community, leading some of the city's religious leaders to side with the students. While the charges wound their way through the courts, a "freedom school" was set up to help the suspended students keep up with their academic work. The case eventually reached the Indiana Supreme Court to decide jurisdiction. Eventually, all charges against the students were dismissed and three civil rights leaders were given fines, with one receiving six months at the Indiana State Prison Farm.[18]

Shortridge High School was closed for several years beginning in 1981. Following a major renovation, Shortridge was then reopened in 1984 as a middle school for grades 6 to 8. In 2009, a high school magnet program for grades 9 to 12 that was focused on law and public policy was added. In 2015, that magnet program was moved to Arsenal Technical High School and the International Baccalaureate (IB) program was moved from Gambold Preparatory High School to Shortridge High School. Some Shortridge families at the time argued the move was primarily designed to cater to wealthier white families while forcing poorer children and children of color out of the school.[19]

In 2018, the entire Indianapolis Public Schools district was reorganized so that all high school students would choose which school they would attend. Several schools were closed in order to strengthen the four remaining high schools: Shortridge, Crispus Attucks, Washington, and Arsenal Tech. In addition to providing a typical high school curriculum, each high school now offers a concentrated program in a specific field. Shortridge retained its International Baccalaureate program and added the system's Arts and Humanities program that had been previously hosted at the former Broad Ripple High School.

In 2013, the band Tenth Avenue North performed in the historic auditorium. Previously, in 1981, Carl Perkins performed there.