Northeast Junior High School (1923-1977)

Northeast Junior High School was the Kansas City Kansas school district's junior high school for African American students during the era of segregation from its opening in 1923 to its closure in 1977. The school represents Progressive Era school construction as well as the practice of racial segregation during that era and beyond. The local school board built two schools in the early 1920s, Northwest Junior High for white students and Northeast Junior High for African American students. African American children came to the school from all parts of the area, leading to overcrowding issues. Even after at 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision made segregation illegal, many Kansas City metro area school districts, following patterns of residential segregation, drew boundaries in ways that maintained racial segregation. A U.S. District Court decision in 1977 mandated that the school board desegregate Northeast Junior High. Rather than integrate this school, the board chose to close the school and re-assign the students and teachers to various schools throughout the area. The building was vacant for roughly twenty years before a group purchased the structure in 2007 and converted it into affordable housing units.

While the substantial architecture typical of the period in this building speaks to the commitment to education during the Progressive Era, the building also stands as a reminder that segregation was not limited to the South. Kansas officials maintained the color line up to the high school level in cities of the first class, a designation based on population. Kansas City was unique in that it also maintained the color line at the high school level after 1905.

Constructed towards the end of the Progressive Era, Northeast Junior High School arose as Kansas City, Kansas' first and only junior high school specifically built to serve the city's African American population. While the school board dedicated significant funding to provide a school building that was similar to those attended by white students, only having one school for African American children created hardships for families who did not live near the school or wished to live in another part of the city. Following the growth of the city, overcrowding proved to be an issue for decades. The school opened in 1925 as part of mandated segregation policies and then closed in 1977 due to court-mandated desegregation.

The development of the junior high and high school educational system coincided with Progressive Era educational philosophies, including standardization of teacher qualifications, managed pedagogy, textbook distribution, and purposeful school designs. High schools and junior high schools grew increasingly popular in U.S. cities by the 1920s and 1930s. In 1910, a little less than one-in-five 15- to 18-year-olds attended high school (few obtained a diploma). But, by 1940, nearly 75% of 15- to 18-year-olds attended high school; the majority of American youths received a diploma by the 1940s. 

The property for which Northeast Junior High School stands once served as land occupied by Matthew Walker, a Wyandot Indian (the Native American people fromwhom the county derives its name). Walker sold the land to George Fowler in 1880. George Fowler, who co-founded the Fowler Brothers Packing House in 1881, built his mansion on the property before financial difficulty forced him to sell it in 1901 to the Kansas City Baptist Theological Seminary, the first Baptist seminary west of the Mississippi River. Renamed Lovelace Hall, the site served the seminary for twenty-two years. The school district purchased the property in 1923, paving the way for the construction of the now-historic junior high school building.

The Kansas City, Kansas school district purchased the property because the area experienced rapid growth, leading to a need for increased school construction. An 1892 U.S. Supreme Court decision resulted in a legal precedent where segregation was legal so long as facilities were "separate but equal." While the educational system of many cities that practiced segregation failed to meet the standard of equal facilities, by the 1920s, Kansas City school officials decided to construct separate schools that utilized the same design and floor plan. Northwest Junior High opened in 1923 for white Students. One year later, the city financed the construction of Northeast Junior High for African American students using the same design. 

Northeast Junior High School played a vital role in the history of African-Americans in Kansas City. All Black students in the city came through its doors, arriving from such neighborhoods as Rosedale, Argentine, Armourdale, Armstrong, Quindaro, Greystone Heights, Wyandotte, and West Bottoms. In fact, when Northeast Junior High School opened in 1925, it stood as the city's first intermediate school for Black students serving grades seven, eight, and nine. Several elementary schools were dedicated to Black students and were the "feeder" schools for the new junior high. Black families from White Church, Edwardsville, and Shawnee Mission, Kansas had to send their children to this school. 

Its significance inspired the African American community to offer strong support for the school. For instance, the development of a parent-teacher association (PTA) included fundraising that allowed the school to purchase a public address system, furniture for the teacher's lounge, a film projector, athletic equipment and uniforms, musical instruments (including an organ), and finance landscaping improvements. Meanwhile, Robert L. McCallop started the McCallop bus company in the 1930s to transport Black children from Johnson County to secondary schools in Wyandotte County (Northeast Junior High and Sumner High School); his own children, and many other Black children in the region, had nowhere to attend high school.

Northeast Junior School adapted to Progressive Era pedagogical theories by including non-traditional subjects into its curriculum, although overcrowding issues challenged teachers. In addition to reading, math (algebra), and other core teachings, students learned typing, industrial arts, health, home economics (cooking, sewing, etc.), and physical education. However, the abundance of Black youths coming to the school strains the teachers. By 1928, the school had to use the auditorium and corridors as make-shift classrooms. Expansion of the school had to wait more than thirty years when an addition finally opened in 1961. 

In 1954, seven years before the completion of the school expansion, the same U.S. Supreme Court that made segregated education a reality made a landmark decision (Brown v. the Topeka Board of Education) that eventually ended segregation. Nevertheless, segregation in schools held firm until federal and state laws emerged in the early 1970s that mandated schools desegregate. During those two decades, several area school districts found creative ways to maintain segregation such as shifting attendance boundaries Finally, In 1977, after organizations filed lawsuits to fight the continued practice of segregation, a U.S. District Court decision stated that the Kansas City, Kansas, School Board did not have to relocate students, but they were required to desegregate Northeast Junior High and Sumner High Schools. 

Thus, Northeast Junior High, which opened because of segregation, closed because of desegregation. After the District Court's decision, the school board closed the school and re-assigned students and teachers to schools throughout the district. The Board sold the building to Pleasant Green Baptist Church in 1985, who planned to open a private school in the building, though that plan never came to fruition. The building remained vacant for roughly twenty years before a group purchased the structure in 2007 with plans to convert it into affordable housing; it operates as a "55 and over" apartment living complex as of 2022.

Goldin, Claudia, The Race between Education and Technology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 2008

Spencer, Brenda R. "Registration Form: "Northeast Junior High School." National Register of Historic Places. nps.gov. 2008. https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/5577f0dd-dc69-4989-b5b3-a03fead9d2bb.

Williams, Mara Rose Williams. "Kansas City schools broke federal desegregation law for decades. The Star stayed quiet." Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Missouri), December 22, 2020. https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article247821130.html.