Groundsite Image Gallery
Central School
Artist: Hughes, Langston
Height: 0.000"
Width: 0.000"
Central School, 901 Kentucky, southwest corner, about 1895 (1893)
This is a view of Central School as it appeared when Langston Hughes attended junior high. Stonework and brickwork from the first and basement floors remain in the present-day building.
When the eighth grade teacher Ida Lyons seated Hughes and other African Americans in the back of the classroom, Hughes led his classmates in a successful protest (Armitage). John Taylor, one of those classmates, remembered this event when Hughes made a sign Jim Crow Row. The students’ parents and African American community leaders helped resolve the situation in favor of Hughes.
This photograph was taken by E.S. Tucker soon after its construction in 1893.