Theodore Roosevelt High School in Gary, Indiana, also known as Gary Roosevelt, can trace its origins to 1908 when the Gary school board issued the segregation of all public schools. The first school for African American children in Gary was built that same year. As the population grew, African American students were also educated in other segregated schools and in portable classrooms, and by 1921, those portable classrooms were located at the present location of Gary Roosevelt.[1] Public school segregation remained in effect, but a few African American students were allowed to enroll in white schools (in segregated classes) if space existed.  Under this plan, 18 African American high school students were transferred to white Emerson School in 1927.  In protest, over 600 white Emerson students conducted a four-day walkout known as the Emerson Strike.[2] The strike was ended when the Gary City Council agreed to allocate funds to create an African American high school, to be named after President Theodore Roosevelt.[3] 
 
Theodore Roosevelt High School was built in 1930 exclusively for African American students. The Gary Roosevelt building features design elements inspired by Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Additional classroom wings were added in 1946 and 1968.[4] The physical design of the Gary Roosevelt building supported what was known as the Gary System of Education or the Gary Plan. Developed by Dr. William A. Wirt, the city’s first superintendent of schools from 1907-1938, the Gary Plan was a Progressive Era educational concept, with some elements of the system playing a role in how schools function today.[5] The Gary Plan emphasized both vocational training and college preparatory classes, a lengthened school day that kept students “off the streets”, and emphasized “work-study-play” incorporating academics, vocational, and recreational activities into each school day. The Gary Plan maximized the utilization and capacity of the building, and even advocated students attending school on Saturday.[6]
 
Although the official school board policy of public school segregation ended in 1947[7], Gary Roosevelt, like virtually all of Gary public schools, remained segregated by the adjustment of school district and individual school boundaries. The school district boundaries were based on the racial mix of the various neighborhoods.[8] Wirt’s Gary Plan was mostly abandoned in favor of more mainstream educational ideas and in response to severe overcrowding due to a post-WWII population explosion in Gary. Adherence to segregation enforced 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 in an effort to ease the extreme overcrowding.[9]
 
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]