Spingarn High School


Joel Elias Spingarn High School was a public high school located in the District of Columbia, USA. The school is named after Joel Elias Spingarn an American educator and literary critic who established the Spingarn Medal in 1913, awarded annually for outstanding achievement by an African American.

History

Spingarn High School opened in 1952, as a new and modern segregated high school for African American students. It was the last segregated high school built in Washington, DC, just two years before the U.S. Supreme Court ended school segregation in Brown v. Board of Education.
The formal dedication ceremonies in December 1953 were attended by Joel Spingarn's widow, Amy Spingarn, and by Spingarn Medal winners Paul Robeson and W. E. B. Du Bois. The principal speaker at the dedication was Howard University professor John Hope Franklin.
Dr. Purvis J. Wiliams was the first principal and served until 1971. Under his leadership, Spingarn gained a reputation as one of the top black schools in the district. Spingarn's enrollment was around 1500 students, who were almost entirely black even after desegregation.
Woodson Junior High School students were housed in Spingarn High School from 1962 to 1963.
Spingarn High School closed at the end of the 2012-13 school year.
In May 2014, the school was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Basketball teams

Spingarn High School has one of DC's most impressive basketball histories and has produced well-known players such as Elgin Baylor, Dave Bing and Sherman Douglas. Spingarn has played in more City Title games than all but one DC public school and won in 1961, 1980, 1985 and 2000. The school has also played in nine DCIAA title games and won consecutively for three years between 2000 and 2003.

Notable alumni