Frederick A. Douglass High School (New Orleans)

Frederick A. Douglass High School
Frederick A. Douglass High School
Address
	3820 St. Claude Ave.; New Orleans, Louisiana 70117; United States
Coordinates	29°57′55″N 90°02′13″W
Information
Type	Public charter high school
Opened	1940, Reestablished 2019
School district	Orleans Parish School Board
Campus type	Inner-city
Color(s)	Navy, gray and white
Athletics	LHSAA
Team name	Bobcats
Website	https://frederickadouglass.kippneworleans.org/

Frederick A. Douglass High School is a high school at 3820 St. Claude Avenue in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, Louisiana. The school is a public charter school.

History

The land on which the school location stands was originally part of the Louis Barthelemy Macarty plantation. After Macarty died in 1846, philanthropist John McDonogh purchased the property and donated it to the City of New Orleans.[1] McDonough also donated other properties and money for use of New Orleans public schools.[2]

McDonogh No. 12

From 1880 to 1939, McDonogh No. 12, was located on the site on St. Claude Avenue.

Francis T. Nicholls High School

McDonogh No. 12 was demolished to make way for Francis T. Nicholls High School. Initially named for Francis T. Nicholls, a former Confederate general, governor of Louisiana, and Chief Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court, the school opened as a segregated white institution on January 29, 1940. The Nicholls High school newspaper was named The Rebel Yell.[2]

Frederick Douglass Senior High School

During the middle 1990s, having since long been desegregated, Nicholls High School was renamed Frederick Douglass Senior High School in honor of the African-American abolitionist Frederick Douglass of Maryland.[2] The renaming of the school was part of a campaign to remove the names of Confederate leaders from public schools in Orleans Parish.

During the 1990s, Nicholls/Douglass faced increased narcotics usage and crime in the surrounding area. Stronger students abandoned the school for magnet schools with selective admissions, such as McDonogh 35. "People considered Douglass totally out of control," said Vincent Lee Nzinga (born November 1941),[3] a Ninth Ward resident who became the principal in 1997. Custodians even declined to stock the school with trash cans and toilet paper. The school had seven principals in a four-year period and a large turnover of teachers.[4]

In 2008, Orleans Parish had about 33,000 students, compared to its peak of 115,000 in 1970. In recent years, white flight to the suburbs, a weak economy with lack of employment prospects, and Hurricane Katrina all took their toll on the community, its schools, and families.[4] In December 2008, unruly pupils set six fires at Douglass High School in either trash cans or bathrooms.[5]

Because of repeated poor academic performance, Douglass High School was taken over and governed by the statewide Recovery School District.[6] In 2010, the school had only 291 pupils (since 296) in grades nine through twelve, virtually all blacks, ten students for every instructor. More than 70 percent were then eligible for free or reduced-priced lunches.[7]

KIPP Renaissance High School

In 2010, KIPP Renaissance High School was founded in the former Nicholls High School and Douglass High School building.[8] The school became a public charter school under the management of KIPP New Orleans Schools. In 2016, KIPP Renaissance earned an "A" letter grade from the Louisiana Department of Education.[9][10]