[African Americana]. [Texas]

Class Day Exercises Graduating Class 1943-1944 of Phillis Wheatley High School...[caption title]

[Houston: 1944]. [4]pp., on a single folded sheet. Mild toning, punch holes to top margin. Very good. Item #3234

A rare program for the commencement exercises for the 1944 midwinter graduating class of Phillis Wheatley High School in Houston, Texas. The program prints the lineup of speakers and songs, including "Let My People Go!" by James Weldon Johnson, along with lists of honor students, class officers, and other details about the class. The last page is printed with a notice for the commencement exercises for "Three Negro High Schools" in the area to be held on February 1, 1944. The principal of Phillis Wheatley High School during this period, E.O. Smith, was the school's first principal, joining the staff of the school when it opened in 1927 as the third segregated high school to serve Houston's Fifth Ward community. A graduate of Fisk University, Smith spent his professional career in education and his larger life fighting for civil rights. The Handbook of Texas includes a lengthy entry on Smith's life and work. An ephemeral program from an African American high school in Jim Crow Texas.

Price: $250.00