Carver High, the Ragsdales and a state that came round on King Day.
Carver High School
In 1926 Phoenix Union Colored High School opened, the only building in Arizona built exclusively for African American high school students. It was renamed for George Washington Carver in 1943. In Phillips v. Phoenix Union High Schools and Junior College District, a judge of the Maricopa County Superior Court ruled school segregation in Phoenix high schools unconstitutional, and Carver closed the following year, in 1954. Since 1996 the building has been home to the George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center.
Lincoln And Eleanor Ragsdale
Lincoln Ragsdale trained as a Tuskegee Airman and was sent to Luke Air Force Base in Arizona for gunnery training. He settled in Phoenix in 1946 and opened a mortuary with his brother Hartwell, becoming Arizona's first Black funeral home owner in 1948. Through the Greater Phoenix Council for Civic Unity he helped raise money for the 1952 lawsuit against Phoenix Union High School.
In 1953 he and his wife Eleanor, a schoolteacher and real estate agent, moved into a home on West Thomas Road, bought for them through a white friend because banks and agents shut Black buyers out. They faced threats and harassment and stayed for 17 years. Eleanor helped other Black families move into the area, and in 1962 the couple organized protests at Phoenix's Woolworth's. Sky Harbor's executive terminal is named for him.
King Day
In 1987, days after taking office, Governor Evan Mecham reversed the executive order that had created a paid state holiday for Martin Luther King Jr. The National Football League threatened to move Super Bowl XXVII, planned for Arizona in 1993, and in 1992 Arizona's voters approved state recognition of the holiday.
Black Phoenix Today
From the Carver museum to the Ragsdales' old street, Phoenix's Black history is part of the city, and Black-owned restaurants, salons, shops and brands are part of everyday Phoenix.
Shop Black-owned businesses in Phoenix on CashBlack.
Photo Credits
The former Phoenix Union Colored High School, built in 1926. Photo: Tony the Marine ( talk ), CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons