You may remember back last summer around this time when I was doing the Book Quotes about Hitchcock and Johnson’s The International Style, I posted this old postcard of Coleman High School in Greenville.
Coleman High School, Greenville (1950, N.W. Overstreet & Associates, archts.)
I was in Greenville recently and decided to check on this school, which I think may now be a middle school. There’s a historic marker that I failed to take a picture of–but no matter, the new helpful Greenville/Washington Co. Preservation website has all the historic markers right there so we can read them from the comfort of our own homes:
COLEMAN HIGH SCHOOL – MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. BOULEVARD, GREENVILLE MS – Named for Lizzie W. Coleman, who was principal of the No. 2 Elementary School. Coleman High School was among the first high schools for African-Americans in the Mississippi Delta. The school served as Greenville’s main high school for African-Americans until 1970. First located on Nelson Street, the school moved to Cleveland Street in 1922. The present school, designed by architect N. W. Overstreet, was built here in 1952. Lizzie Coleman’s motto was “Burn the midnight oil! Be prepared!”
I certainly can’t argue with Ms. Coleman, although I’ve recently been told that I’ve been burning too much midnight oil and that it’s making me cranky. To which I reply, “I’m naturally cranky–mind your own business!”
Anyway, as I thought I remembered back in last year’s post, Coleman seems to be in fairly good repair but has had its windows replaced. It’s not the worst window replacement I’ve ever seen, not even close–even so, I wish they had worked harder to keep the extreme horizontality of the originals. It looks like most of the original awning-type steel windows are still in place on the secondary elevations.
Categories: Cool Old Places, Greenville, Recent Past, Renovation Projects, Schools
Preservation in Mississippi 
I taught at this school from 2004-2006. It is indeed a middle school now, with the only real nod to the building’s former use as a high school being a large but disorganized trophy case with some artifacts in it. The fourth shot down in your photo series is the back of the library. A teacher told me that this was a cafeteria space at one point in time, but I’m not sure how accurate that is.
The front facade of the building is in much better repair than the back side. The building has also been added onto since its original construction. The interior of the building is in fairly good shape and was kept clean when I was there. The biggest problem with the space was the classrooms, which are cinderblock rectangles that are just a smidge small for the needs of a modern classroom. Several of them had exterior windows which needed to be repaired or replaced. My room still had old, dimpled green chalkboards which were not very useful and wall mounted fans that looked like tiny versions of cotton gin fans.
A lot of alums of Coleman High School took great pride in the school. Nice to see it noted here.
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I graduated from Coleman High, in 1963, I’ve not had a chance to see the front of the school since about 1980, I’ve not seen the school the from that time.
During our time the trophy case was a show case of pride, Music, Sport, and some Academics. Looking at the the photos I find it hard to see the old library space as the Cafeteria, it seem so adequate as library regardless of other changes that might have been made, during our time, there weren’t awful lot books, but a lot space on the shelves for added books. Hopefully that has changed.
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Hello, I am doing my family history, and I recently found out by my great grandaunt that this school was named after my cousin Lizzie. I am a Williams, Calahan descendant, and would like to pick your brain a little if possible to see if there is a connection somewhere that could aid me in my research in finding my lost living relatives! My 3rd great grandparents were Albert Samuel Wiliams & Bertha Williams who died in 1924 of pneumonia. She was also a school teacher in Greenville. There was also Willis funeral home that was downtown on Washington Ave., that was family owned! If you know if anyone connected to these families please send them my way! Other family surnames are: Calahan, Coleman, Calaham, Willis, Williams……I am trying to break down a few walls. Your reply via email to: MrRCollinsIII@gmail.com would certainly mean alot!
Sincerely,
Ray
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Lester Fowler Jr. My family was connected to a Bertha Williams. Time line much later. Around the 1950,s residing 1st on Nelson street near broadway. Later had a house on Gloster near the rail road tracks across the street from Sacred Heart School property. I last visited Bertha around 1960. Eddie William , her husband could have been a relative. Cousin to my father Lester senior. Son of JD Fowler well known around Greenville.
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I have a 1947 Coleman High School photograph found here in St Louis Missouri in a storage bin
Calvin Riley
314-749-6322
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Could you email a copy of the 1947 photo to…… Andrew9684@att.net: Thanks,Andrew
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Hello, its year 2022 now, I’m just now reading this post, I’m searching for my Mom and Dads high school pictures, could you please send me a screen shot of what you have, my email is : cyntmcm@yahoo.com, please and thankyou, they could possibly be in that photo.
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Do you know a Jeannie Williams who did a Junior Year Abroad in France in 1966-67. I assume she would have graduated from Coleman High School in 1964. Her family were well-established Greenville African-Americans but her mother I believe worked for a newspaper. I assume she would be about 72 now. I knew her in Aix-en-Provence from March of 1967 until the end of that semester.
Any help appreciated.
Sam aka as Shushu back then
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There is so much history about this school. It’s sad that the students today are not aware of this. I’m told that they hear of the negative that has become the norm of these students.Hopefully they get a true meaning of what a Coleman tiger is when the reunion occurs in 2014.
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This was my Dads KENNETH GRIFFIN school backin ’66 I jus shared these photos with him. Historic meaningful memories he was number fifthteen on basketball team.
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I graduated from Coleman in 68. I saw your dad play many times & win a State Championship. Hope to see him at the Decades reunion next year. Say hi to him for me.
Andrew Williams
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Hello, I am doing my family history, and I recently found out by my great grandaunt that this school was named after my cousin Lizzie. I am a Williams descendant, and would like to pick your brain about your ancestors if possible to see if there is a connection somewhere. My 3rd great grandparents were Albert Samuel Wiliams & Bertha Williams who died in 1924 of pneumonia. She was also a school teacher in Greenville. Other family surnames are: Calahan, Coleman, Calaham, Willis, Williams……I am trying to break down a few walls. Your reply via email to: MrRCollinsIII@gmail.com would certainly mean alot!
Sincerely,
Ray
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I’m Kevin Gault and I live in Taylor, Tx. I recently purchased a 1968 Coleman High School yearbook. I’m doing some research on the Bruce and Harmon families of Mississippi.
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The present library was indeed the cafeteria.
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Does anyone know where to go to get copies of high school transcripts from this Coleman High School ? I am a counselor trying to help a student get into college and because the school is closed we are having some difficulty. Thank you in advance for any direction you may be able to offer. amy.callahan@ashford.edu
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I would start my search with the board of education first, and see where that takes me, if not them maybe they can tell you where to search.
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I go to Coleman I’m in the 6 grade. I think Lizzie has made a huge impact on my life. She helped blacks get an education when times were hard. She’s an awesome role model. @yasveal16
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My father was the head coach in basketball and football at Coleman High School in the late 40 and early 50! His name was William Cummings! If anyone recognizes this could you e-mail me at. Dlynmck@yahoo.com! Thank you 🙏
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My mother was a 1953 graduate and I have a 1952 and 1953 Colemanite Yearbook. I saw your father’s pic in the 1952 yearbook.
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I was indeed one of the last graduates of Coleman High School in 1970. I always visit the grounds of the school when I am home. Each and everyone of my adult children know the rich history of this great institution and the influence that it had on my life. Whenever I go in the world, I always reflect on the fond memories of the school and the teachers, such as Mr. T.T. Robinson, Mrs. Alma Alexander, Mrs Leyser Crawford Holmes, Miss Etta Crawford, Mr. John Warren, Mrs Lottie B. Catholic, Mr. Phield Parish, Mr. Bennie Long, Mr. jonh Richardson, Mrs. Bettye Farmer, Mr. Riley, Mr. Jewell Lockhart, and all of the others which I cannot name here, but deserve the same accolades as those that I have mentioned. Love them all and my classmates. Coleman has such a rich tradition of excellence which I hope will be preserved forever.
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Enjoyed reading your comments classmate.
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I too was one of the last graduates 1970 I was in the band .I enjoyed every minute of my junior senior year.when I go home I always go by .it is a good feeling
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My father’s name is Willie Davis Hibler. I was told that he was on the football team and Graduated from Coleman High. I’m not totally sure of the dates he attended. If you knew him, will you please share a memory?
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Hello Kosiki, I am Dr. Albert Calvin, Jr., a childhood friend and classmate of your late, father, Willie Davis Hibler. He attended Coleman High School 1962-1968. He was on the football and track teams. I attended Coleman from 1962 – 1966 and graduated from T. L. Weston in 1968. Your father and I kept up with each other until he passed away. He was one of my close friends in school.
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Hi. Would anyone happen to know Willie White Jr? I’m trying to help my friend find her father. I think he graduated in 1963. I do have a picture of him as well.
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I went to Coleman Jr.Sr. Highschool 7th and 8th grade Mrs. Toler was my english teacher
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Wow! thanks for sharing this wonderful article. I attended Coleman from fall 1970 to 1972. The first year of integration. It fortunately uneventful. I do have a question, does anyone know how I could copies of the 1970/71/72 year book? Please let me know, Shalom
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Does anyone here happen to remember this photograph or know any of these students? This is by Greenville photographer Henry Clay Anderson, taken at Coleman High in 1960. http://www.cs-photo.com/feature/detail.php/131/3/1/0/13476
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I tried but was unable to pull up a photo from the webpage that you listed. I would love to see the photo and would probably be able to identify the people. Can you give it a second try to list the webpage. THANKS!!!
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I attended Coleman Jr. High (7th – 9th grade: 1977 – 1980) and can’t imagine a better middle school experience. I was in the band, the flag corp, student government and I loved it! I remembered how supportive the staff & faculty were; they were like a second set of parents who truly cared about your education & success in life.
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This school, Coleman High School is one of the greatest school. The teachers were outstanding. The coaches, Mr. Davis Weathersby, Mr. Elijah Moore. Coach Moore was my homeroom teacher. He was serious five days a week. There is a word that describe Miss Herticne Jones. Greatness! Mr. Roy Huddleston, a profound man. All of our teachers, coaches, cafeteria staff, janitors, office staff all were professional. My class, 1970 the last graduation class. Unique school, unique teachers, coaches, unique janitors, unique students.
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I attended Coleman Jr. High School from 1972-1975! The best of school time ever!!!!!! Can someone tell me who the principal was? I remember Mr. Howard and Mr. Scott as the assistant principals, but some one by the name of Mr. Warnock as the principal. I’m not sure………. Was he?????
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Hello Don Jackson! 🤗
I’m trying to find a picture of my mother that went to Coleman around that time. Her name is Beverly Leverne Hall. Her age from that time would have been From 1960-1975=15
From 1960-1974=14
From 1960-1973=13
From 1960-1972=12. She died when I was a baby and I never got a chance to see how she looked. No one in the family had a picture of her which I felt was strange. If anyone has a year book with her picture in it. Will you send me a copy of it to my email: Leverne100@gmail.com.
I will really be grateful! 🤗🙏🏾
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My grandmother was Salutatorian of Coleman High in 1950. Her name is Sadie Pye.
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My grandmother was Salutatorian of Coleman High in 1950. Her name is Sadie Pye.
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Hi. Would anyone happen to know Willie White Jr? I’m trying to help my friend find her father. I think he graduated in 1963. I do have a picture of him as well.
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My name is Lonnie Braxton and I graduated from Coleman High in 1966. I recently read an article that Coleman is being closed as the result of a heavy infestation of mold caused by a leaking roof. The cost of repairs when the small number of students who now attend Coleman is factored into the equation the school many never open again. This school was such a source of pride for our community when I was a kid. So very much of our history can be traced back to this school and an effort needs to be made to save the history even if the building it’s self can’t be saved.
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My mother, Claudia M. Bush was a 1953 graduate of Coleman High School. After she graduated from Jackson State College (now University) in 1957, she returned home and taught at Coleman for a few of years before starting our family and moving to Hopkinsville, KY to continue teaching. I happen to have 2 of her yearbooks… the 52 and 53 Colemanite.
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And how could I mention Coleman High without talking about G.P. Maddox who was the long tenure Principal during the years my mother was in school, taught, and years after.
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My mother, Claudia M. Bush was a 1953 graduate of Coleman High School. After graduating from Jackson State College (now University) in 1957, she returned home to Greenville and taught several years. Got married in 1958 (Claudia M Greene) and continued to teach there until 1960 when my brother was born then moved to Hopkinsville, KY and continue her teaching career. Her career spanned almost 40 years in education from Greenville, Hopkinsville, Heidelberg Germany, and finally Atlanta. I can’t forget to mention Coleman High without talking about G.P. Maddox who was the long tenure Principal during the years my mother was in school, taught, and years after.
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It was certainly great to hear your mother’s story and its connection to Coleman High. I am sorry to share some bad news about Coleman High.
Greenville will close beloved middle school because of mold, HVAC problems and other safety concerns
GREENVILLE — Greenville school district officials plan to close a school that is plagued with mold and leaks. Although leaders of the financially troubled district say the closure of Coleman Middle School is temporary, they are not saying how long repairs might take.
Superintendent Ilean Richards said at a school board meeting Thursday that she fears the state health department would shutter Coleman, which enrolled more than 200 students.
“Because we have not repaired that roof, it’s literally raining in the school,” she told a board room packed with community members. She said it’s raining to the point that ceiling tiles, which were installed in the most recent renovation, are falling down.
“Children should not have to go to school in that kind of condition,” Richards told an audience of Coleman alumni. “If we want to keep Coleman, we’re going to have to stop and fix it.”
The school board voted Friday to relocate Coleman students to T. L. Weston Middle School.
District leaders did not disclose when repairs would begin, and it’s unclear how the district would fund renovations. The new school year starts on Aug. 5.
Greenville schools faced a series of financial setbacks in the past year. Leadership must properly account for more than $4 million in pandemic relief money or pay the sum back to the state education department in addition to paying roughly $500,000 in misreported tax withholdings to the Internal Revenue Service.
The second floor of Coleman cannot be used due to the leaking roof, Richards said. School staff have to wipe away mold on walls after rain, she told community members.
The school’s library also cannot be used in part because of mold, Richards said.
Coleman’s auditorium underwent renovations in the last five years with the addition of air conditioning, but the gym sometimes gets too hot to use.
“So we can’t kick the can down the road because we don’t have a road to kick the can down,” board secretary Allison Washington said. She pushed for the board to choose a site for those students with enough time for parents to buy school-specific uniforms and prepare for the first day of classes.
The board agreed to tour nearby Armstrong Elementary School on Friday to vet it as a temporary location for Coleman students. Board member Oliver Johnson wanted to ensure Coleman students attend a school in their neighborhood.
“We have had a number of schools on this side of town that just closed,” he said.
The board room was packed on Thursday evening with over two dozen Coleman alumni who voiced concerns about the board shuttering a storied community institution. Coleman was the city’s Black high school during segregation and won multiple state football championships.
Glenn Davis, who was forced to transfer to the newly integrated Greenville high school his senior year in 1971, still vividly recalls Friday night football games when the whole community would pack the field behind Coleman. Davis said Coleman was known as far away as California for its athleticism and school spirit.
“This school is a legacy,” Davis said. “The whole community had pride. That field out by the school used to be packed all the way around inside for games. Everybody would come.”
Other alumni were upset to see their beloved alma mater in a state of disrepair. They said it was proof that leaders had not properly cared for it over the years.
“And now they let the school get so bad and they got to close it down. That’s crazy,” Coleman alum Kevin January said. “They already took so much money to keep it up.”
He said he also worries that combining middle schoolers from different sides of town will lead to more fights. The concern was echoed by other community members when Richards took questions from the audience.
At the meeting’s close, Richards asked for volunteers to help make Coleman last another 100 years. She specifically called for the rusted fence that runs the perimeter of the campus to be torn down. Several parents and alumni signed their name to a sheet of loose leaf paper to help out on a future date.
“It shouldn’t be looking like that in front of Coleman. That says: We don’t care anything about this school,” Richards said of the dilapidated fence. “We can’t keep it going. And that’s where it is. And you pass by it every day. So you have children in there.”
January was motivated to advocate for his alma mater on Thursday. He had many fond memories of the football and basketball teams. He said it was one of the places in the city, which he most associated with his childhood. Many of his friends from those years are still his closest friends.
He also hopes his mother, who is a school employee, will be able to keep her job.
For some alumni, the board meeting was an opportunity to reminisce with classmates about the Greenville they knew.
Joanne Fisher, a Coleman alum and retired teacher, remembers Charles Petty, a stern but passionate history teacher who always wore a suit. She said the energy inside the building was joyful even though teachers were strict.
“Children wanted to come to school,” she recalled. “You went in there to do your work. It was family oriented.”
Fisher has seen a beloved school close before. She attended the Ray Brooks School, a Benoit school that was closed in 2020. She said it was troubling to hear of vandalism at the former school building. She also hated to see it ransacked and desecrated.
West Bolivar High School in Rosedale faced a similar fate after its closure in 2021. A jersey, trophy, football helmet as well as other memorabilia were stolen from the abandoned building this past year. Many composites still hang from decaying walls inside the historic school building.
Fisher is hopeful the school district will rebuild. She says that Greenville locals are resilient, and if any cause could bring the community together, this could be it.
“When I was there, we all got along,” she recalled of her time at Coleman. “I think the district could bounce back with everybody working together to rebuild it. It’s not going to have to start with the school district. It’s got to be all of us.”
Update 6/26/26: This story was updated to note that the Greenville school board voted Friday
Below is letter that I drafted and hope that you will share with as many alumni as possible. Let’s show the SCHOOL SPRIT and COMMUNITY PRIDE that Mr. Glen Davis express so eloquently at the school board’s meeting.
Dear Friends and Fellow Coleman High Alumni,
I am writing to share news that is difficult, painful, and urgent. As many of you may have already heard, Coleman High School in Greenville, Mississippi — the school that educated generations of Black students during segregation, the school that shaped our lives and our futures — has fallen on hard times.
Because of years of deferred maintenance, the building has deteriorated to the point where the roof leaks badly, and mold has spread throughout the school. For the safety of the students, the city has closed the building. This has been reported in several articles across the state, and while the city has not officially stated whether the closure is permanent, the facts speak loudly.
The cost of repairing Coleman is enormous. And when you consider that the school now serves fewer than 250 students, compared to the more than 600 students who attended when many of us graduated in 1966, it raises a troubling question: Will the city decide that repairing Coleman is no longer feasible?
Based on the information available, I fear that the City of Greenville simply does not have the resources to restore the building, nor the student population to justify such a large investment. The size of the Coleman campus — once a source of pride — now requires a level of funding per student that the district may not be able to sustain.
In plain terms: Coleman High School may be permanently closed.
And if that happens, we face an even greater loss — the loss of our history.
Inside those walls are the class photos of generations of graduates, the trophies from our championship teams, the awards, the banners, the memorabilia, and the physical reminders of a school that stood as a beacon for Black education during segregation. These items are not just objects. They are our story, our pride, our legacy.
If we do nothing, that history may be thrown away, lost, or destroyed.
We cannot allow that to happen.
Now is the time — before decisions are made and before the building is emptied — for us to come together as alumni and as a community. Even if we cannot save the building, we can and must save the history.
I am asking each of you to help:
· Share this message with anyone who attended Coleman High — by email, Facebook, phone, or word of mouth.
· Contact the Mayor’s Office and the School Board to let them know that the alumni are aware of the situation and want to preserve the historical artifacts of the school.
· Make it clear that while saving the building may be impossible, saving the history is not.
We owe it to ourselves, to our parents who sacrificed for us, to the teachers who believed in us, and to the generations who will come after us.
Coleman High School was more than a building. It was a community, a foundation, and a source of strength during some of the most challenging years in our nation’s history. We cannot let that legacy disappear.
Let us act now — together — while we still have time.
With respect and determination,
Lonnie Braxton II
Senior Assistant State’s Attorney
For the State of Connecticut (Retired)
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