Description
Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School opened in 1929 and offered a comprehensive education for black students in Little Rock. Mrs. Sue Cowan Williams taught English here from 1935 to 1943, when she was abruptly fired. She resumed teaching here in 1952 when she was offered her job back and taught until her retirment in 1974. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Dunbar architecture and curriculum were adapted to fit the Tuskegee model. The new building housed classrooms for grades seven through twelve and also had a wing for Dunbar Junior College, a two-year institution with an emphasis upon training teachers. Extracurricular activities included athletics (football, basketball, baseball, track and field, volleyball, and tennis), music, drama, debate, and a chapter of the National Honor Society.
The Little Rock School District as of 2011 is still using the Dunbar building as an active school, known as Dunbar Magnet Middle School.