King College Prep High School

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. College Preparatory High School (commonly known as King College Prep or locally as King) is a public 4-year selective enrollment magnet high school located in the Kenwood neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Opened in 1971, The school is named for slain leader of the civil rights movement, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968). Operated by the Chicago Public Schools district, King is one of the district's ten selective enrollment schools, which means that its students must apply for acceptance, based on academic achievement and test scores. In 2010, under then–principal Jeff Wright, King College Prep was named a "Silver Medal" school by U.S. News & World Report in its annual rankings of America's best high schools. During the 2016–2017 school year, the school was promoted to a level one plus rank school. History The school was founded as Forrestville High School in 1964, which was located 4401 S. Saint Lawrence Avenue (less than a mile west of King's location). Housed in a former elementary school, School officials and community members requested to the Chicago Board of Education a new school building was needed to accommodate the increasing enrollment of Forrestville, which by 1968 was around 2,100. The school opened as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. High School for a class of 650 summer school students on June 28, 1971. The school later opened for the 1971–1972 academic school year on September 8, 1971, with an enrollment of 1,800. The school, which costed $7 million to construct was officially dedicated to civil rights activist and minister Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on October 17, 1971, by Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley, Chicago Public Schools superintendent James F. Redmond and the schools' principal Charles Almo. The school opened as a neighborhood high school, with most of the student body being from surrounding neighborhoods (which consisted of Kenwood, Grand Boulevard and Oakland) and the former Forrestville High School. King became a selective enrollment school during the 2000–2001 school year and was renamed Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. College Preparatory High School.