David T. Howard High School

David T. Howard High School was a school for African American students in Atlanta, Georgia. It has many prominent alumni. In 2018 the school was being renovated for a planned 2020 reopening as a middle school. Alumni include Martin Luther King Jr., Maynard Jackson who became Atlanta's first Black mayor, Walt Frazier who played basketball at the school, Lonnie King, Vernon Jordan, Clarence Cooper (judge), and gold medal-winning Olympian Mildred McDaniel Singleton. It is located at 551 John Wesley Dobbs Avenue. It was named for prominent businessman and philanthropist David Tobias Howard. History The school opened in 1923 as an Elementary School. It became a high school in 1948. The school was named for David T. Howard, a former slave who owned Atlanta's largest black-owned undertaking business and founded its first African American owned bank. He was a noted philanthropist, particularly focused on educating children. He donated thousands of dollars to poor children to be educated, to Tuskegee University, and donated the 7.5 acre campus for the elementary school which was named after him.