In the halls of Booker T. Washington high school, students are literally walking through history

11th grader Brooke Shelton says the history is special.  “Extremely special.  I walk the halls and I get chills.  I feel the people who walked before me and I say, wow!”  Booker T. Washington High School in Southwest Atlanta.  The first public high school in the state of Georgia for African American students, which opened in 1924.

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“The promise was fulfilled,” School Historian Marcie Wynn said.  Ms. Wynn tells the tale in Washington High’s Research and Archive Center.  “We had artifacts, awards, pictures, and letters all over the floor.  Then we had to sift through it and organize by decade.”  During the early days of the pandemic, they used some of it to cover the windows in the room and create a timeline of the school’s rich history.

“When I first came in to see it, I was speechless,” Ms. Wyn said.

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Now every student learns the lessons.  “You attend ‘the’ Booker T. Washington High School.  Historic moment.  Dr. King went here,” senior Janiyah Alford said.

“When you walk the halls of Washington High, it’s not about what you’re doing now.  It’s about what you’ll do in the future,” Senior Class President Tashyra Lyles said.

Brooke Shelton is already looking forward to it.  “I want my kids to go here. I want then to understand they are important.  You go to a school that is equally important,” Brooke said.

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