LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton declared February 15, 2023 Dunbar Centennial Day, honoring what used to be an all-Black high school in Lexington that's now a neighborhood center.
As it marked its 100th birthday Wednesday, community leaders discussed its legacy.
"Dunbar Center, former Dunbar High School, is the heartbeat of the East End," said First District Councilmember Tayna Fogle.
From 1923 to 1967, Dunbar High School was an all-Black high school, the first Black high school in Kentucky to be admitted to the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. Major League Baseball player Lou Johnson played both baseball and basketball here.
"It was a beacon of light for all the children in the city school system," said Representative George Brown, Jr, who went to the school. "I fell in love with Dunbar High School at a very young age. All I knew was green and white, and basketball, and football, and the sports. I didn't really understand the academics until I got here."
The school closed in 1967, after desegregation and the students here all went to other schools across Lexington. Today, it's Dunbar Community Center, with a gym, weight room, game rooms, and other things for families in the neighborhood, but its history is far from forgotten.
"Today's Centennial at Dunbar, in some ways, allows us to make sure that we keep the torch lit and that we continue to pass the torch of this great legacy in history at Dunbar," said Lexington Commissioner of General Services Chris Ford.
"I'm just appreciative that this building still stands as a testament to what the original principal of Paul Laurence Dunbar, William H. Fouse, to the students, to the faculty, and to the staff that helped make this place very, very special," Brown said.
As the building marked it's 100th birthday, everyone who came out reflected on all this place has meant to the community and what it still has to offer.
