History UnderfootAtlanta

Trinity High and Beacon Elementary, Decatur

Decatur's Black schools in the Beacon Hill neighborhood. The 1955 Trinity High and Beacon Elementary buildings were 'equalization' schools, built after Brown v. Board to keep Black students in separate schools.

See it on the map All Segregation records

The record

The city ran the Herring Street School for Black children from 1913 into the early 1950s (AJC). Beacon Elementary and Trinity High opened in 1955, in the wave of equalization schools Georgia built to head off integration after the 1954 Brown decision (Rotenstein). Trinity served as the Black counterpart to white Decatur High School. Its students were fully merged into Decatur High in 1967 (Wikipedia).

Today: The Beacon Municipal Center (police headquarters, municipal court and recreation). Demolition began in 2013; the gym and parts of the schools were kept.