• Desegregation in Leon County actually began in 1962, when Elaine Thorpe enrolled at Blessed Sacrament School

    Prior to the 1967, School Board’s “freedom of school choice” ruling, the first Black students to voluntarily integrate into an all White school in Leon County were Marilyn Holifield, Philip Hadley and Harold Knowles who were admitted to the Junior Class at Leon High School in 1963. That same year Melodie Thompson enrolled at Kate Sullivan Elementary School.

    James S. Richards High School was established in 1960 in Southeast Tallahassee. The School was named after     . C.B. “Rick” Williams was the first Black student to enter Rickards in 1965. In 1994, the International Baccalaureate Program was instituted as a part of the Richards curriculum.

    In 1966, Amos P. Godby High School was opened on the west side of town. The school opened that year as a junior high with grades seven and eight. That same year the school shared its buildings with the administrators and students of the new Tallahassee Junior College while their campus was being constructed. Within a year the Junior College had moved to its own location, a new Belle Vue Middle School opened for the younger students, and Godby became a senior high school housing grades nine and ten. New grade levels were added as facilities were completed The first senior class to graduate from Godby High included 12 graders who had hoped to graduate from the original Lincoln High School on West Brevard Street, but were reassigned to Godby High when Lincoln closed at the end of their junior year. These students combined with the Godby Seniors and became the first Godby graduating class in 1970. The high school was named after Amos P. Godby who had served as a teacher and coach at Leon High School and later became Leon County School Superintendent and Secretary and President of the Florida Superintendents Association.

    During Leon County’s initial integration efforts, the doors to the Lincoln High School facility at the West Brevard Street location were closed. Its educational mission, however was continued at ae Griffin Junior High School site on Alabama Street for two more years. With the support of dedicated faculty and parents, and the Leon County School Board, programs and services to enhance Black youth in Leon County continued and culminated with the issuance of Lincoln High School diplomas to the graduating classes of 1968 and 1969. Although the “Class of 1967” was the last class to graduate from the Lincoln High School on West Brevard Street, the “Class of 1969”, which was graduated from the Griffin Junior High School facility, was Lincoln High School’s last official graduating class.

    By 1969, the growth of student populations in the county accounted for the necessity to build eight more elementary schools. Woodville School became an elementary school in 1961; Sabal Palm, named for the State Tree of Florida, in 1962; in 1966, Timberlane Elementary School was built arid later the name was changed to Gilchrist Elementary to honor James M. Gilchrist former principal of the school. W.T. Moore school was opened in 1968, and recognized the civic contributions of Mr. Moore who served as Leon County judge and a Leon County School Board Chairman; Apalachee Elementary (1969) was named after the Native America peoples who once populated the area; Astoria Park, located in a northwest community, also opened ii 1969, and was named in recognition of the Astoria Park neighborhood. In 1969, Oak Ridge Elementary opened and received its name because of the beautiful oak trees that surrounded the school. No new elementary schools would be needed in Leon County until the 1980s.

    The 1970’s in Leon County saw the construction of “School G”; later to be called Fairview Middle School (1970); Fairview Middle School, is located on the south side of town near the Leon County fairgrounds and offers an IB Magnet Prep program. It received its name because of the beautiful view from the school grounds.

    SAIL, was founded as an alternative learning center (ALC) in 1975. Dr. Joel Dawson became the first Principal of the ALC. The school was located on Macomb Street, in a portion of the original Lincoln High School. It was during the years 1974-1975 that the West Brevard Street Lincoln High School facility became the Lincoln Neighborhood Center. In the spring of 1978, Rosanne Wood was named principal and the school name was changed to SAIL (School for Applied Individualized Learning). SAIL was the first alternative school in the US to earn full accreditation status. In the 1990s, SAIL also served as a Magnet School for Environmental Science. From 197J-2007, SAIL was located on the original Lincoln High School campus. In 2007, SAIL moved to its current location on Jackson Bluff Road.

    In 1974, The Florida Heritage Foundation and the Historic Tallahassee Preservation Board Officially recognized Lincoln High School as a Historic Preservation site.

    A "new" Lincoln High School was built on the east side of town on Trojan Trail, in 1975. It bore no relationship to the original Lincoln High School. School zones were changed in order to prevent overcrowding at the other older high schools. With the creation of the "new" Lincoln High School there would not be a need for another high school until the 1990’s.
Last Modified on October 4, 2022