{"id":372,"featured":0,"modified":"2026-04-17 19:32:52","latitude":29.771795499999999634610503562726080417633056640625,"longitude":-95.31987016679653379469527862966060638427734375,"title":"Phillis Wheatley High School","subtitle":"","fullsize":"https://easttexashistory.org/files/fullsize/64c674abfec76ef2cf3739431d07a8f2.jpg","address":"4801 Providence Houston, TX 77020","all_locations":[],"zoom":7,"creator":["Amanda Phillips"],"description":"In August of 2022, Phillis Wheatley High School in Houston, TX learned that their school had earned a C rating from the Texas Education Agency (TEA), their first passing rating after a decade of poor academic performance. This is great news for a school who has been facing a TEA takeover for years but it is also very different from the story of success prevalent in Wheatley’s history. The school boasts a prestigious alumnus that includes former Congressional Representatives Barbara Jordan and Mickey Leland, pilot and aeronautical engineer Frank C. Mann, Texas jazz musicians Arnett Cobb and Jean-Baptiste “Illinois” Jacquet, state representatives Al Edwards and Harold Dutton Jr., and the first African-American president of Brown University, Dr. Ruth Stubblefield Simmons.<br />\r\n<br />\r\nPhillis Wheatley High School opened its doors to Houston’s black student population in January 1927, becoming Houston’s third all-black high school alongside Booker T. Washington High School and Jack Yates High School. Housed in a former white school, McGowan Elementary on Lyons Avenue, the school would serve Houston’s Fifth Ward. In William Kellar’s book, Make Haste Slowly: Moderates, Conservatives, and School Desegregation in Houston, he explains that Houston’s black schools often lacked many of the resources available to white schools in the area. “The district offered advanced courses and special programs only at white schools…In addition, their libraries were ill equipped, and frequently they had to make do with worn, out-of-date textbooks.” Despite these disadvantages, there is evidence that teachers at Houston schools, like Wheatley High School, offered the black community and its students a quality education. An advertisement in the Houston Chronicle on December 31, 1927, listed Phillis Wheatley High School as one of several locations where local residents could attend night courses. Additionally, according to a report by the state board of education in 1936, Phillis Wheatley High School and its sister schools, Washington and Yates, were three of twelve negro schools in the state of Texas to receive a “Class A” rating. In 1949, the Houston Chronicle bragged on Wheatley students who earned “top honors in negro school tilts.” Of the students mentioned was a young Barbara Jordan. She had won the state championship in junior declamation. <br />\r\n<br />\r\nThe number of students registered at Phillis Wheatley continued to grow and by 1950, attendance topped 3,300 in a school built to house only three-fifths that number. To accommodate the large student population, Wheatley High School held classes in shifts with only the seniors attending school during normal hours. In September 1950, HISD opened a new $2.5 million campus on Greg Street with a capacity of 3,500 students. The Houston Chronicle reported that when the building opened and renovations to the old campus were completed the “Fifth Ward purportedly will have one of the finest negro high school systems in the South.” <br />\r\n<br />\r\nJim Crow segregation rules prevented black and white schools from competing against each other in sports. Despite the nature of these social restrictions, Wheatley High School students found joy in friendly competition with other Houston area black schools. One such event was the annual Turkey Day football game. Kellar described the annual game between Phillis Wheatley High School and Jack Yates High School “as one of the ‘biggest’ high school football games in the country.” The Turkey Day football tradition ran from 1946 until 1967 when UIL rules required all district games to be completed prior to Thanksgiving Day.<br />\r\n<br />\r\nMuch like other southern cities, the white-led HISD board of education was slow to initiate desegregation efforts after the Brown v. Board of Education decision. In Make Haste Slowly, Keller explains that aside from a brief period of “liberal” control from 1955-1957, the school board in Houston was controlled by “a powerful conservative coalition… [that] believed steadfastly in racial segregation and fiercely opposed any suggestion that the Jim Crow system should be dismantled.” This coalition used a number of tactics to delay desegregation for several years. By 1965, despite some small efforts to desegregate, the black community in Houston was tired of waiting and held a one-day boycott of black schools in HISD. According to the Houston Chronicle, approximately 85% of black students in HISD stayed home on May 10, 1965. The article reported that of the 1,894 students enrolled at Wheatley High School, 1,794 were absent. Four students picketed outside the school with signs that read “Give Jim Crow Your Desk Today” and “No School Today – Better Schools Tomorrow.” Another article from the same paper claimed that each absent student equated to one dollar lost for the district. Wheatley students cost HISD nearly $1800 in lost revenue that day. <br />\r\n<br />\r\nIt took another 19 years to desegregate HISD. However, after a decade of white flight in the 1970s and an influx of new Hispanic residents, Phillis Wheatley High School experienced de facto segregation. Today, the demographic breakdown of the school is 50.4% African American and 48.5% Hispanic, with the remaining 1% a mix of white and bi-racial students. Additionally, 96% of the student body is considered economically disadvantaged and 67.2% are at risk of not graduating. The community and a number of alumni have made efforts to maintain the legacy of the school. In 2006, the new $35 million campus on Providence Street, designed by Wheatley alumnus and architect Willie Jordan, opened. During the school’s 80th anniversary in 2007, many gathered at a fundraising gala to recognize outstanding teachers, honor influential alumni, and raise money to support the school. One attendee whose grandmother, parents, and sister were all alumni stated, “No other high school has graduated so many African-American leaders, and the city of Houston has benefited from this rich tradition.” In 2012, Debra Blacklock-Sloan submitted an application and received approval for a Harris Country Historical Marker. With such a significant history and prestigious list of graduates, it gives one hope that the success of a passing grade in 2022 is only one of many future successes and it is this author’s greatest hope that many more Barbara Jordans and Frank C. Manns will come out of its halls.","sponsor":null,"accessinfo":"","lede":"","website":"https://www.houstonisd.org/wheatley","related_resources":["Make Haste Slowly: Moderates, Conservatives, and School Desegregation in Houston by William Henry Keller, 1999","NewsBank Archives - https://www.newsbank.com/","https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=171054","https://houstonhistorymagazine.org/2016/12/the-turkey-day-classic-houstons-biggest-football-rivalry/","https://schools.texastribune.org/districts/houston-isd/wheatley-high-school/","https://www.harriscountyarchives.com/Portals/1/Documents/Marker/Wheatley%20High%20School%20marker%20narrative%209162012%20%20FINAL.pdf","https://www.philliswheatleyalumni.com/","https://www.khou.com/article/news/education/wheatley-high-school-tea-grade/285-5fd32be0-599b-4f2d-941c-09f2991c7bb0"],"factoids":[],"files":{"https://easttexashistory.org/files/fullsize/64c674abfec76ef2cf3739431d07a8f2.jpg":{"id":2712,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Original 1929 Campus - Phillis Wheatley High School","description":"Site of the former McGowan Elementary School for white students, it was converted into Phillis Wheatley High School in 1929. Located at 3415 Lyons Avenue in Houston, Tx. The school was located here until 1950 when a new building opened up on Gregg Street. The building was demolished in 2014 after a lengthy legal battle to preserve it. | https://preservationhouston.org/news/2014/9/18/1929-wheatley-school-to-be-demolished","thumbnail":"https://easttexashistory.org/files/square_thumbnails/64c674abfec76ef2cf3739431d07a8f2.jpg"},"https://easttexashistory.org/files/fullsize/8951cdef7e5ac84a5306a162d7416c51.jpg":{"id":2713,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Phillis Wheatley High School Crest","description":"The crest reflects the school colors of &quot;hybrid purple and spotless white&quot; chosen in 1927. The school&#039;s mascot, the Wildcat, is a part of the design. The school&#039;s motto is &quot;Scholarship, Character, and Service.&quot; | https://mobile.twitter.com/welovewheatley","thumbnail":"https://easttexashistory.org/files/square_thumbnails/8951cdef7e5ac84a5306a162d7416c51.jpg"},"https://easttexashistory.org/files/fullsize/a33cba7ce7394d290f446af0b9192bc0.jpg":{"id":2714,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"The Annual Turkey Day Game","description":"From 1946-1967, the Turkey Day Classic was one of the highlights of the school year for many of Houston&#039;s black residents. Shown in the picture are student athletes from Phillis Wheatley in white with purple helmets. Students athletes in crimson and gold are from another one of Houston&#039;s black schools, Jack Yates High School.  | https://houstonhistorymagazine.org/2016/12/the-turkey-day-classic-houstons-biggest-football-rivalry/","thumbnail":"https://easttexashistory.org/files/square_thumbnails/a33cba7ce7394d290f446af0b9192bc0.jpg"},"https://easttexashistory.org/files/fullsize/d436ba6b089f96029e144e7acda403ac.jpg":{"id":2715,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Barbara Jordan, Phillis Wheatley High School - Class of &#039;52","description":"Barbara Jordan graduated from Texas Southern University in 1956. She received her law degree from Brown University in 1959. She was elected as the first African American woman to the Texas Senate in 1966 and became the second African American woman to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1972. | https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/Honor-Barbara-Jordan-as-a-fiery-apostle-of-14277522.php","thumbnail":"https://easttexashistory.org/files/square_thumbnails/d436ba6b089f96029e144e7acda403ac.jpg"},"https://easttexashistory.org/files/fullsize/7b76d772d48bd2554f2fd22a6dc08889.jpg":{"id":2716,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Phillis Wheatley High School Historical Marker","description":"In September of 2012, Debra Blacklock-Sloan applied, with the assistance of Bernice Mistrot, to place a historical marker in front of Phillis Wheatley High School. The marker was placed outside the school in 2012 by the Harris County Historical Commission. | https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=171054","thumbnail":"https://easttexashistory.org/files/square_thumbnails/7b76d772d48bd2554f2fd22a6dc08889.jpg"},"https://easttexashistory.org/files/fullsize/cb6054c7d6ea2802d3fcb12419793641.jpg":{"id":2717,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Phillis Wheatley High School Today","description":"The most recent location of Phillis Wheatley High School is at 4801 Providence St in Houston, TX. The building was designed by Wheatley alumnus and architect, Willie Jordan and opened in 2006. At opening, the campus &quot;included 214,000 square feet of classrooms, six science labs, computer labs, a library with computer labs, administrative offices, a commons area, a kitchen, an auto lab and two gymnasiums.&quot;  | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheatley_High_School_(Houston)#/media/File:WheatleyHighSchoolHoustonTX.JPG<br />\r\n<br />\r\nhttps://www.harriscountyarchives.com/Portals/1/Documents/Marker/Wheatley%20High%20School%20marker%20narrative%209162012%20%20FINAL.pdf","thumbnail":"https://easttexashistory.org/files/square_thumbnails/cb6054c7d6ea2802d3fcb12419793641.jpg"}}}