Merrill High School (Arkansas)
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2024}}
{{Infobox school
| name = Merrill High School
| location =
| city = Pine Bluff
| state = Arkansas
| country = U.S.
| coordinates = {{coord|34.23095|-92.01540|display=inline,title}}
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| type = Public
| district = Pine Bluff School District
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| former_name = Merrill Public School
Merrill Institute
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Merrill High School was a public secondary school in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, operated by the Pine Bluff School District. It was one of four high schools that served black students in the Pine Bluff area until the public schools were integrated in 1971.
History
Originally known as Merrill School, it was named for Joseph Merrill, a philanthropist from New Hampshire. In 1886 Merrill sold a two-story house and some adjoining land to the Pine Bluff School District, and donated money to African-Americans to remodel the house into a five room school.
Newspaper editor and publisher Jesse Duke was one of the people recruited to teach at Merrill School by Marion Rowlamd Perry Sr.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oKjODwAAQBAJ&q=j.c.+duke+pine+bluff&pg=PT233|title=The Pioneers: Early African-American Leaders in Pine Bluff, Arkansas: Freedmen, Newly Freed, and First/Second Generation, Born from 1833-1892|first=Bettye J.|last=Williams|date=January 22, 2020|publisher=Archway Publishing|isbn=9781480871922|via=Google Books}}
Part of the school later burned, and was restored by the Works Progress Administration in 1939.{{cite web |title=Joseph Merrill |url=http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=2697 |accessdate=November 17, 2018}}
Dollarway School District (DSD) sent older black students to Merrill High, as DSD did not have its own high school for either black or white students,{{cite journal|last=Pickhardt|first=John B.|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40543600|title=We Don't Intend to Have a Story: Integration in the Dollarway School District|journal=The Arkansas Historical Quarterly|publisher=Arkansas Historical Association|volume=68|issue=4|date=Winter 2009|pages=357–387|jstor=40543600}} - Cited page 359. until Townsend Park High School opened in 1955.{{cite journal|last=Pickhardt|first=John B.|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40543600|title=We Don't Intend to Have a Story: Integration in the Dollarway School District|journal=The Arkansas Historical Quarterly|publisher=Arkansas Historical Association|volume=68|issue=4|date=Winter 2009|pages=357–387|jstor=40543600}} - Cited page 360.
Athletics
Merrill won back-to-back National Championships in Lamar Allen's freshman year of 1932 and again in 1933.{{cite web |title=Arkansas's "White" Newspaper Chose All-Star Teams for State's All-Black Schools |url=https://www.bestofarkansassports.com/arkansass-white-paper-chose-all-star-teams-for-states-all-black-schools/ |accessdate=November 17, 2018}}
Notable people
- Lamar "Buddy" Allen, baseball player, football player, coach
- Joseph Carter Corbin, an educator who served as the first principal of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff from 1875-1902. After he was fired in 1902 he became principal of Merrill{{cite web |title=Joseph Carter Corbin |url=http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=1624 |accessdate=November 17, 2018}}
- Chris Mercer, the first African-American deputy state prosecutor in the South, one of the "six pioneers" who integrated the University of Arkansas Law School.{{cite web |title=University of Arkansas Mourns Death of Civil Rights Activist Christopher Mercer |url=https://news.uark.edu/articles/19732/university-of-arkansas-mourns-death-of-civil-rights-activist-christopher-mercer |accessdate=December 12, 2018 |date=November 26, 2012}}
- Cleo Miller, professional football player{{cite web |url=https://www.statscrew.com/football/stats/p-millecle001 |title=Cleo Miller |website=www.statscrew.com |access-date=August 14, 2021}}
- Raye Montague, US Navy engineer, created first computer generated draft of a naval ship{{cite web |title=Raye Jean Jordan Montague |url=http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=5565 |accessdate=November 17, 2018}}
References
{{reflist}}
{{Pine Bluff, Arkansas}}
{{Jefferson County, Arkansas Schools}}
{{authority control}}
Category:Schools in Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Category:Public high schools in Arkansas