CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL | central-exhibit

Central High School (1944-1972)

Originally opened in 1917, Central High School moved to the old Tennessee College for Women campus after a fire in 1944. The new building was completed in 1950, becoming the first coeducational school on the site. Central High School offered students the opportunity to pursue their interests. Several students that took advanced coursework went on to qualify as national Merit Scholar finalists and attended the South’s most prestigious universities. CHS also offered vocational classes for students that planned to enter the workforce.

East Main Street Campus

The original Central High School building, located on North Maple Street, burnt down on March 30, 1944. Because it was the only white high school in Murfreesboro at the time, the school board was forced to find a new location quickly. They purchased the old TCW campus and used the old building, as well as other locations in Murfreesboro, as a temporary solution. The new building was completed in 1950.

Lee Pate

Lee Pate was the long time football and men's basketball coach at Central High School. He was known for being a stern coach, but his successes earned him a great deal of respect in the Central community. Under his leadership, the football team dedicated their new building with a state championship in 1950. Coach Pate would take the school to another state championship, this time in basketball, in 1965.

Central Sports

We started in August of 1950 in the old building, we were there only just a few days. We moved to the new building, each student picked up his desk, chair and desk, and moved to the new building... [TCW] was in bad shape, it was, it was bad. And you realized, when we got to the new one, really how bad it was... It was just an old, old building that been there for years...

—Billy Heath

He was good, he was strict, but everybody respected him.

—Billy Heath

Courtesy of Rutherford County Archives

Gene Windham

The school won another state football championship in 1970, this time under the leadership of Coach Gene Windham. In the aftermath of intergration, Coach Windham encouraged black students to join the team, and the team proved to be a power house in state competition until the closing of Central High School in 1972.

Photo courtesy of Rutherford County Archives

Apple Game

Beginning on Thanksgiving Day 1921, the Central High School and Clarksville High School football teams participated in one of the longest running (and strangest) rivalries in Tennessee high school football. From 1921 until Central closed in 1972, the loser of the rivalry game between the two schools took possession of a pickled apple. Clarksville lost the final game between the two schools in 1971, leaving the team in perpetual possession of the apple.

Social Life

Band

The school’s band competed nationally, performing at many national events, including John F. Kennedy's Inauguration Parade in 1961 and the Indy 500 (shown at right). When the band represented the state, they carried several signs, each emblazoned with a black letter on a gold field that spelled out the word Tennessee.

Photo courtesy of H. Dalton Stroop

Tiger's Den

Even after classes moved into the new building, students continued to make use of parts of the Tennessee College for Women building. On weeknights and weekends, the school’s Key Club transformed the TCW building into the “Tiger’s Den,” a hangout where students could socialize, dance, and listen to music. TCW was finally torn down in 1963.

Photo courtesy of Shacklett's Photography

Desegregation

Murfreesboro desegregated schools in 1962, eight years after the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board decision declared public school segregation unconstitutional. CHS served as the test case for integration. Paul Marchbanks, Jr., the son of a local minister, was the first African American student to attend CHS. He persevered through persistent ostracism to graduate in 1966. Complete integration, however, would not come until 1969.

[Paul Marchbanks, Jr.] told us horrible stories. He was not so physically abused like we saw that some people were hit, and all that, but he was spat upon. And he was ostracized, so that lots of times he said it was so lonely.

—Kathryn Knight

Other students would be slowly integrated throughout the late 1960s, including Madeline Scales and David Hartful. Complete integration, however, would not come until 1969 with the closure of Holloway High School. Integration of particular teams and clubs, such as the basketball team and the cheerleading squad, sometimes helped to ease the way for black students coming to CHS.

We had no incidents at all when integration came. We had no sit-ins, no nothing. It just—it did—it went all smooth as silk. But that’s the kind of community this was, you know?

—Gerald Willis

Reunions

The class of 1956 is only one of multiple graduating classes from Central High School that continues to hold reunions. Many graduates of Central High School remember their time on that campus fondly and want to share their memories and experiences with each other and the next generation.

Photo courtesy of Susan Sanders

Everything was centered around school... It was our lives.

—Susan Taylor-Turner

Central had a big impact on my life... They taught us critical thinking, they taught us how to make choices, how to make the right decisions...

—Marvin Martin