INGTON

If one is making a collection of striking contrasts between _what once
was, but now is_, he should certainly include in this list the
Preparatory High School established for Negro youth in the National
Capital, November, 1870, and the beautiful new Dunbar High School
which was dedicated January 15, 1917. It is indeed a far cry from the
basement of the Presbyterian Church in which this first Preparatory
High School was located and the magnificent brick, stone-trimmed
building of Elizabethan architecture with a frontage of 401 feet which
was recently christened the Dunbar High School in honor of the poet,
Paul Laurence Dunbar. This new school represents an outlay of more
than a half a million dollars. The ground cost the government $60,000,
the building and equipment $550,000, and it is considered one of the
most complete and beautiful institutions for Negro youth in the
country.[347] There is a faculty of 48 teachers, many of them being
graduates from the leading colleges and universities of the country,
and 1,252 pupils are enrolled, 545 boys and 707 girls.

It would have required a vivid and fertile imagination indeed for a
pupil who attended that first high school to have dreamed of an
institution so comprehensive and efficient as the high school of
to-day. In fact, the first high school for Negro youth was not a high
school at all. It was, as its name indicated, a Preparatory High
School established in 1870. It was mainly composed of pupils
completing the last two years of the grammar grades, although,
according to the school report of that year, a small number of
students were pursuing the high school course.[348] The new
institution labored under several decided disadvantages. In the first
place, the teaching force was inadequate, as there was only one
instructor for 45 pupils. Sufficient time for advanced studies was not
given and the school suffered also from the loss of pupils employed to
meet the growing demand for teachers in the lower grades.[349]

The first class would have graduated in 1875, but the demand for
teachers being so much greater than the supply, the first two classes
were drawn into the teaching corps, before they had completed the
prescribed course.[350] It was not until 1877, therefore, that the
first high school commencement was held, eleven pupils being awarded
diplomas. These were Dora F. Baker, Mary L. Beason, Fannie M. Costin,
Julia C. Grant, Fannie E. McCoy, Cornelia A. Pinc