Intro Post

According to the tour guide:

3. The first black elementary school at 215 E. Sixth Street. It used to be the old Stonesipher's bakery, and is currently being used by Citizens of Chinese Ancestry of Tucson.

This one was a little harder to find, as there currently is no address 215 East 6th, but my nearest guess is that the white and blue building -- which is unoccupied, save perhaps for "Million Magazines" -- is the former bakery turned school turned Chinese cultural center. On the corner of 6th and 6th, there's a used car lot.

Update: A picture of the original school building has been located.

Intro Post

Gloria Smith's heritage tour guide states:

4. Across the street at 108 - 110 E. Sixth Street is the Tucson Transfer Company. One of its first drivers was Mr. Henry Ransom, a pioneer wagon driver and former military man.

There's no doubt about this site location; it's one of the largest buildings in the area, and has a huge sign on top!

For more on Henry Ransom, see this page on African American heritage at University of Arizona, part of the In The Steps of Estaban. We'll learn more about Esteban at heritage tour stop #7, in the park named for the first black man in what would become Arizona.

Henry is the one in the middle here:

You guys liking these posts so far? I haven't gotten much feedback; I get more comments when I take pictures of dirt.

Validate me, dammit!

Intro Post

So sayeth the tour:

5. The site of Mrs. Lee's Home was located on the northwest corner of Stone and University.

Sadly, Mrs. Lee's first name is as lost to us as her home; Gloria Smith does not record it, nor does Harry Lawson who draws on the work of James Yancey, who wrote a 1933 masters thesis at University of Arizona on Tucson black history. Lawson writes:

Yancey (1933) reports that a Mrs. Lee came to Tucson in the middle of the 1890s from Phoenix and reopened the dining room at the Orndorff hotel which she ran exclusively for Whites. She had successfully operated a "Whites only" cafe in Phoenix in the 1880s. According to Yancey the San Xavier, brought in 10 Negroes from Kansas City, Missouri to serve as table waiters in their dining room.

The In The Steps of Esteban site reports that Mrs. Lee's cafe "received the patronage of the best people in Tucson."

The location of Mrs. Lee's home is now a large apartment complex, Entrada Real, occupied by students attending the university.

Intro Post

Gloria Smith's tour did not prepare me at all for the sight that awaited me:

6. On Main Street is located what is now Spring Junior High School. It was the first and only black high school in Tucson and was called at the time Dunbar High School.

I'm leaving these pictures without commentary for now; part four will explain the history and current status of Dunbar/Spring.

Continued in Part Two.

Intro Post

See Part One for more explanation of Dunbar school.

A timeline of Dunbar/Spring, by Gloria Smith:

1921	A 2 room basement was added
1930	2 more rooms added
1936	2 more rooms
1940	2 more rooms
1948	$20,000 was used to purchase ground for a junior high school and 12 new rooms were added and the old school was remodeled. It had a total of 23 rooms, a cafeteria, and an auditorium.
1951	Segregation ended and it became John Spring school
1961	It became a junior high school
1966	Library was added and the elementary students go to Davis and Roosevelt schools

Continued in Part Three.

Intro Post

See Part One for more explanation of Dunbar school.

Concluded in Part Four.

I'll post the final part of the Dunbar school history tomorrow.

Your homework assignment:

Read the poems.

Hear the poems.

Read the wikipedia entry.