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https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/64408b4e80b6d2e11d9e2eabaee2e452.jpg
306a20deaf5d9182797ccacbdc788064
https://www.digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/6b6b850b39871aac303ba44613a6baf2.jpg
98d2a6e316cfbd92beeb2e393bc79054
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Title
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Places
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Title
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Gary Roosevelt High School
Description
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<p><span data-contrast="auto">Theodore Roosevelt </span><span data-contrast="auto">H</span><span data-contrast="auto">igh </span><span data-contrast="auto">S</span><span data-contrast="auto">chool</span><span data-contrast="auto"> in Gary, Indiana,</span><span data-contrast="auto"> also known as Gary Roosevelt,</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">can trace its origins to 1908 when </span><span data-contrast="auto">the Gary</span><span data-contrast="auto"> school board </span><span data-contrast="auto">issued the segregation of all public schools. The first school for African American children in Gary </span><span data-contrast="auto">was built</span><span data-contrast="auto"> that same year. </span><span data-contrast="auto">As the population grew</span><span data-contrast="auto">, African American students were</span><span data-contrast="auto"> also</span><span data-contrast="auto"> educated in other segregated schools and in portable classrooms, and by </span><span data-contrast="auto">1921,</span><span data-contrast="auto"> those portable classrooms were located at</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">the </span><span data-contrast="auto">present location of</span><span data-contrast="auto"> Gary </span><span data-contrast="auto">Roosevel</span><span data-contrast="auto">t</span><span data-contrast="auto">.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">1]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">Public school segregation remained in effect</span><span data-contrast="auto">, but a few African American students </span><span data-contrast="auto">were</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">allowed to enroll</span><span data-contrast="auto"> in white schools</span><span data-contrast="auto"> (in segregated classes)</span><span data-contrast="auto"> if space</span><span data-contrast="auto"> existed. </span><span data-contrast="auto">Under this plan</span><span data-contrast="auto">, 18 African American high school students </span><span data-contrast="auto">were transferred</span><span data-contrast="auto"> to white Emerson School</span><span data-contrast="auto"> in 1927</span><span data-contrast="auto">. </span><span data-contrast="auto">In protest, o</span><span data-contrast="auto">ver 600</span><span data-contrast="auto"> white</span><span data-contrast="auto"> Emerson</span><span data-contrast="auto"> students conducted a four-day walkout known as the Emerson Strike.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">2]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> The strike </span><span data-contrast="auto">was ended</span><span data-contrast="auto"> when the Gary City Council agreed to </span><span data-contrast="auto">allocate</span><span data-contrast="auto"> funds to create an African American high school, to be named after President Theodore Roosevelt.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">3]</span><span data-ccp-props="{"335559739":160,"335559740":480}"> <br /> <br /></span><span data-contrast="auto">Theodore Roosevelt High School </span><span data-contrast="auto">was built</span><span data-contrast="auto"> in 1930</span><span data-contrast="auto"> exclusively for African American students.</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">The </span><span data-contrast="auto">Gary Roosevelt </span><span data-contrast="auto">building</span><span data-contrast="auto"> features design elements inspired by </span><span data-contrast="auto">Independence Hall</span><span data-contrast="auto"> in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.</span><span data-contrast="auto"> Additional classroom wings </span><span data-contrast="auto">were added</span><span data-contrast="auto"> in 1946 and 1968.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">4]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">The </span><span data-contrast="auto">physical design of the</span><span data-contrast="auto"> Gary Roosevelt</span><span data-contrast="auto"> building </span><span data-contrast="auto">support</span><span data-contrast="auto">ed what </span><span data-contrast="auto">was known</span><span data-contrast="auto"> as the Gary System of Education or the Gary Plan. </span><span data-contrast="auto">Developed by Dr. William A. Wirt, the city’s first superintendent </span><span data-contrast="auto">of schools</span><span data-contrast="auto"> from 1907-1938</span><span data-contrast="auto">, the Gary Plan was a Progressive Er</span><span data-contrast="auto">a educational concept, with some elements of the system playing </span><span data-contrast="auto">a role in how schools function today.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">5]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> The Gary Plan emphasized both vocational training and college preparatory classes, </span><span data-contrast="auto">a lengthened school day</span><span data-contrast="auto"> that kept students “off the streets”</span><span data-contrast="auto">, and emphasized “work-study-play” </span><span data-contrast="auto">incorporating</span><span data-contrast="auto"> academics, vocational, and recreational activities into each school day.</span><span data-contrast="auto"> The Gary Plan</span><span data-contrast="auto"> maximized the utilization and capacity of the building, and even advocated students attending school on Saturday.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">6]<br /></span><span data-contrast="auto"> <br /></span><span data-contrast="auto">Although the official school board policy of public school segregation ended in 1947[</span><span data-contrast="auto">7]</span><span data-contrast="auto">, Gary Roosevelt, like virtually all of Gary public schools, remained segregated by the adjustment of school district and individual school boundaries.</span><span data-contrast="auto"> The school district boundaries </span><span data-contrast="auto">were based</span><span data-contrast="auto"> on the racial </span><span data-contrast="auto">mix</span><span data-contrast="auto"> of the various neighborhoods.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">8]</span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-contrast="auto">Wirt’s</span><span data-contrast="auto"> Gary </span><span data-contrast="auto">Plan </span><span data-contrast="auto">was </span><span data-contrast="auto">mostly </span><span data-contrast="auto">abandoned</span><span data-contrast="auto"> in favor of more mainstream educational ideas</span><span data-contrast="auto"> and in response to severe overcrowding due to a post-WWII population explosion in Gary. Adherence to segregation</span><span data-contrast="auto"> enforced</span><span data-contrast="auto"> by neighborhood racial boundaries, no matter the amount of population growth, meant that for almost 20 years, Gary Roosevelt students attended classes in rented portable classrooms or attended half-day sessions</span><span data-contrast="auto"> in an effort to ease the extreme overcrowding</span><span data-contrast="auto">.[</span><span data-contrast="auto">9]<br /></span><span data-ccp-props="{"335559731":720,"335559739":160,"335559740":480}"> <br /></span>Teachers at Gary Roosevelt have educated generations of African American children for nearly a century. The school is now known as the Theodore Roosevelt College and Career Academy, a charter school for grades 7-12. The building formerly known as Theodore Roosevelt High School is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its architectural importance, its role in the Progressive Era in education, and the integral part it played in Gary's segregated public school system.[10]</p>
Source
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<span>[1] </span><span>Indiana NPS Roosevel</span><span>t, Theodore, High School. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. National </span><span>Park Service</span><span>. Accessed February 21, 2020.<br /></span><span>[2] </span><span>“Protest Walkout Grows” </span><span>Gary Post Tribune</span><span>, 27 September 1927.<br /></span><span>[3] </span><span>Cohen, Ronald D., </span><span>The Dilemma of School Integration in the North: Gary, Indiana, 1945</span><span>-</span><span>1960</span><span>. </span><span>Indiana Magazine of History </span><span>Vol. 82, No. 2 (June 1986):161</span><span>-</span><span>184.<br />[</span><span>4] </span><span>Indiana NPS Roosevelt, Theodore, High School.<br />[5] Wirt manuscripts, 1899-1957. Archives Online at Indiana University. http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/findingaids/view?doc.view=entire_text&docId=InU-Li-VAD7202. Accessed February 26, 2020.<br />[6] The Public School System of Gary, Indiana. Public Administration Service 1955. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015039523116&view=1up&seq=25. Accessed April 2019.<br />[7] “A Challenge to Integration: The Froebel School Strikes of 1945.” Indiana History Blog. https://blog.history.in.gov/a-challenge-to-integration-the-froebel-school-strikes-of-1945. Accessed February 26, 2020.<br />[8] Cohen, Ronald D.<br />[9] Ibid.<br />[10] Indiana NPS Roosevelt, Theodore, High School. </span>
Contributor
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Student Authors: Jake Bailey and Robin Johnson
Faculty Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey
Rights
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PHOTO & VIDEO:<br /><br />Theodore Roosevelt High School, attributed to T. Tolbert, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons <br />https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Theodore_Roosevelt_High_School,_Gary_Indiana.jpg <br /><br />PHOTO & VIDEO:<br />Roosevelt High School, attributed to Nyttend, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Roosevelt_High_School,_Gary.jpg
Relation
A related resource
<a href="https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/12001059" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Register of Historic Places</a>
1900-40s
1929
1950s-present
education
Gary
Lake County
National Register of Historic Places
Segregation