Dunbar Junior High School

Dunbar opened in 1929 as an inner-city Black high school. Dunbar was named for the famous Negro poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar. The school was built at a cost of $400,000 made possible through contributions from Julius Rosenwald Foundation, the General Education Board, and the Little Rock School District. When it was built, it was considered the most modern and complete public high school building in the United States erected specifically for Negroes. It was the only black secondary school in the state accredited by the North Central Association.

The school was initially called the Negro School for Industrial Arts. Protests from Little Rock's black leaders caused the school board to change the school's name by the time of the first class graduation in May, 1930.

The building housed a junior high school, a senior high school, and a junior college and averaged a yearly enrollment of 1700 students. The entire program of work emphasized vocational and liberal arts training for all pupils. Students could earn a high school diploma, a trade certificate, or both. They could also be prepared to enter college or the world of work, equipped with a marketable skill.

When Horace Mann High School was built in 1955 as the new Negro high school, Dunbar became a junior high school. It served black students only until all the Little Rock schools were desegregated in 1971.

Dunbar is currently 60% black and 40% white and other ethnic groups. The school now draws its students from both a designated zone and from students who wish to attend for one of its Magnet programs, International Studies and/or Gifted and Talented curriculums. Before the implementation of these programs, Dunbar was about 85 - 90% black.