• Jefferson High School, 1319 east 41^st Street

 

Although construction had not yet been completed, Jefferson  High opened its doors for classes on September 11, 1916. The student body, which consisted of just 246 girls and boys, would grow to 2,800 by the mid-1920s. Under the directionof Theodore Fulton, who arrived from Manual Arts High School to serve as Jefferson's first principal, the schoolworked quickly to establish the organizations and programs  that play central roles in the high school experience. During the school's first year, students and staff worked together to form a Girl's League, Girl's Glee Club, a debate team, and a baseball squad. That year the students voted for green and gold as the colors to represent Jefferson High. Five young women and three young men accepted diplomas in Jefferson High's first commencement ceremonies, held in June of 1917 in the cafeteria dining room.(1) Jefferson High continued to grow rapidly during the following  school year, 1917-1918. That fall, students began a student  government and developed a constitution. Students also organized the school newspaper, the Jeffersonian, and began work on the official Jefferson High yearbook, the Monticellan, which students received at the end of each term.  The city sold bonds to pay for new facilities at the school, including the auditorium, shop buildings and the girls' gymnasium in 1921, and the familiar administration building and library the following year (2).

Jefferson High was established in the midst of the World War I, and war activities played an important role in the school's early years. Drives to save money and food, Liberty  bond sales, and service clubs provided ways for students to become involved in the war effort. Six students and five faculty members from that first year served in the armed forces during the hostilities. A large number of students participated in R.O.T.C., which ranked first by the War Department among all Southern California High School units (3).  Over the next several decades, as Latinos, African Americans, and Asian Americans moved into the neighborhood,  Jefferson High developed an extremely diverse student body. A review of student clubs in the 1940 Winter Monticellan   illustrates such diversity, with students forming a "Negro History Club," "Spanish Club," "Chinese Club," "El Club Cuauhtemoc," and the "Jefferson Japanese Club." Athletic teams at Jefferson high were racially integrated long before professional sports teams were. The Jefferson Democrats played their final regular season game against the Roosevelt  High Roughriders in front of large crowds at nearby Wrigley Field, the home of Pacific Coast League Professional baseball in which teams continued to be racially segregated.(4)

Jefferson High gained reputation for training aspiring  musicians who would later perform in Central Avenue's music spots. Samuel Browne directed Jefferson High's music program from 1936 to 1961, training notables such as Dexter Gordon, Bill Douglass, Sunny Criss, Frank Morgan, Eric Delphi, Vi Redd, "Big Jay" McNeely, Art Farmer, Clorea Bryant, Lawrence Marable, Melba Liston, Chico Hamilton, Don Cherry an Ernie Andrews. Browne himself graduated from Jefferson High in 1926, and attended the University of Southern California for both his bachelors and masters degrees (5).

• Vernon Branch Library, 4504 Central Avenue

-A Vernon/Central fixture of education and community activity since 1915.

The Vernon Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library at Ventral Avenueand 45th St. has provided the Vernon/Central community with both abook repository and community center for over eighty years. Mary Heiber became the first librarian of the Vernon branch when the facility opened on September 30, 1915. The wide variety of educational programs offered by the library made an immediate impact on the community. The library hosted music recitals and concerts performed by neighborhood students and orchestras, and hosted exhibitions by local artists and schoolchildren. Programs intended for adult participants included lectures on pressing local and international issues, health and family relations, book clubs, and instructional classes ranging from drama to knitting. During the Depression, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) sponsored Spanish and French language classes for local library patrons (Folder 006-000, Dunbar EDC).

The Vernon Branch played an important role in the Los Angeles Public Library Branch system. From 1915-1919, the Vernon Branch Library ranked first in total books and lending material among all Los Angeles Public Library branches except the Central Library. By 1936, the library maintained a lending volume of 22,555 books, including pamphlets, magazine, and a unique "Negro History Collection" that attracted students from various areas of  the city (Sentinel, 006-000 Dunbar EDC). Local newspapers including the California Eagle, Los Angeles Sentinel, News Guardian, as well as neighborhood school newspapers from Jefferson High School, McKinley Jr. High School, promoting both the collections at the Vernon Branch Library and the special events held there. Miriam Matthews, the head librarian at the branch in the late 1930s, wrote a column in the Eagle in which she called special attention to new books concerning African American culture and history. Matthews used the column to review books by prominent black authors, and to announce the library's participation in local events such as "Negro History Week." The voice of Miriam Matthews could also be heard on the radio throughout much of 1935, as she discussed topics pertaining to African American politics and culture on KECA-Los Angeles (Folder 006-000, Dunbar EDC).