Jackson-Reed High School

A student in the 1940s with fashion popular at the time

What is now Jackson-Reed High School was built on a patch of land acquired in 1930, known by the neighboring Tenleytowners as "French's Woods". In March 1934, the D.C. commissioners awarded the contract to build Jackson-Reed to the lowest bidder, McCloskey and Co of Philadelphia. It was built for a total cost of $1.25 million.

The school opened its doors to students on September 23, 1935, as an all-white school named for Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President of the United States,[6] the sixth DC Interhigh school. The school started with 640 sophomores and juniors, many of whom had transferred from Central and Western. Western had been running double shifts (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.) to accommodate the students from the Wilson neighborhoods. The first principal was Norman J. Nelson, formerly assistant principal at Western.

Wilson High School graduated its first students in February 1937. Chester Moye was class president of the February graduation class. The school held its first spring commencement exercises, on June 23, 1937, for 290 students. The class president was Robert Davidson.

In the spring of 1970, about 400 students, almost all black, gathered in the school auditorium to protest inequalities in the school. Jay Childers, the author of The Evolving Citizen: American Youth and the Changing Norms of Democratic Engagement (2012), wrote that this indicated racial tension in the school.[7]

Dr. Stephen P. Tarason became the school's 11th principal in January 1999, when he succeeded Dr. Wilma Bonner. Bonner spent a brief time working at the main DCPS office before accepting a job at Howard University School of Education.

In mid-2006, Woodrow Wilson High School was proposed to be a charter school. However, the superintendent asked the school to hold off in exchange for being granted control over certain areas of autonomy, especially facilities.

Jacqueline Williams became interim principal in 2007, after Tarason left to become a middle school principal in Hagerstown, Maryland. The following year, DCPS chancellor Michelle Rhee appointed as principal Peter Cahall,[8] a former teacher and administrator with the Montgomery County Public Schools.

The school building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.[9]

For the 2006-07 school year, Woodrow Wilson was one of 11 U.S. schools selected by the College Board for the EXCELerator School Improvement Model program, which was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Along with several other D.C. public schools, the campus was renovated in 2011,[10] bringing it to the LEED Gold standard.[11] For the 2010–11 school year, Wilson held classes in a temporary space at the University of the District of Columbia. The renovated school reopened in October, and festivities included a 75th anniversary celebration.[12]

Childers wrote that the school had been "increasingly troubled" before 2012.[7]

In June 2014, Cahall came out as gay to his students during the school's gay pride day. He said that his students inspired him to come out.[13] The Westboro Baptist Church had stated that it was going to protest against that pride day.[14]

Cahall left his post in December 2014, in the middle of the school year, after DCPS announced that his contract would not be renewed.[15] Cahall said that his contract was not renewed due to low test scores.[8] In 2015, Cahall became the principal of Thomas Edison High School of Technology.[16]

In spring 2015, a panel headed by teachers and other employees, parents, and members of the surrounding community examined candidates for the position of principal. DCPS ultimately hired Kimberly Martin,[17] who had served as the principal of Lorain Admiral King High School in Lorain, Ohio, from 2003 to 2005, after teaching there for five years; as principal of Thomas W. Harvey High School in Painesville, Ohio, from 2005 to 2012; and as principal of Aspen High School in Aspen, Colorado, from 2012 to 2015.[18][19] She began her term as principal of Wilson on June 29, 2015.[20]

In 2015, DCPS proposed a $15.6 million budget for Wilson, down $300,000 from the previous year, despite a projected enrollment of more students.[21]

Woodrow Wilson was a supporter of segregation, and his works as a historian are pillars of the Dunning School approach to the Civil War and Reconstruction. His presidency fell under what is known as the nadir of American race relations. As U.S. president, he permitted or initiated segregation and purges within the workforce of the federal government, including the U.S. military. Discussions about whether Wilson is an appropriate name for a high school had sporadically occurred since the 2000s, but it gained traction when Princeton University students protested in 2015 as their school debated removing Wilson's name from campus buildings. Organizers of the latest movement want the new name to honor Reno, a black community demolished in the 1930s to create Fort Reno Park. They feel that Woodrow Wilson's policies, particularly his actions to segregate the United States Federal Government workforce, laid the groundwork for dismantling it. Proponents of the name change argued that "the community in Northwest Washington has to acknowledge that the federal government — after Wilson left office — uprooted established black communities to create the upper-income, largely white enclave it is today."[22]

On September 15, 2020, D.C. Public Schools officials announced the school would change its name by the end of 2020, at an estimated cost of $1.2 million. After a citywide call for nominations drew more than 2,000 submissions, the Mayor settled on nine finalists and put the list to a community vote. More than 30 percent of the vote—by far the largest chunk—went to August Wilson, the African American playwright. The DCPS leaders and the Mayor's office expressed support, and so the school planned to change to August Wilson High School in fall 2021. But the Mayor and DC Council failed to formally act on the name change. The class of 2021 graduated with the simplified name "Wilson High School" on their diplomas.

On December 20, 2021, the DC Council voiced opposition to the proposed new name, and voted instead to name the school Jackson-Reed High School, after Edna Burke Jackson, the first African American teacher at Wilson High School; and Vincent Reed, a former principal at the school who went on to be a D.C. Public Schools superintendent. Bowser did not formally respond to the D.C. Council's actions, which was passed with a veto-proof majority.The bill was transmitted for Congressional review under the Home Rule Charter without incident, and became law on March 15, 2022.[23]

During its first school year in 1935–36, the then-Wilson HS was not eligible to play in the Inter-High School Athletic Association. The newly formed basketball and baseball teams played an exhibition-only schedule the first year, and there was no football team. The basketball and baseball teams began their official Inter-High Series competition in the 1936–'37 school year. The football team played an exhibition season in 1936–37 and then officially joined the Inter-High Series a year later, in the fall of 1937.

Coach Carl Heintel coached the Wilson baseball, basketball, and football teams.

Wilson was frequently called "the Presidents" by newspaper sportswriters in the early years.

On April 20, 1937, the Wilson baseball team scored an 8–3 victory at Central Stadium in the school's first-ever major sport Inter-High win. Wilson pitching ace Kilmer Bortz, with his "befuddling drop" pitch, struck out sixteen Central High School batters. In the spring of 1937, two baseball players were honored as Wilson's first-ever All High selections in a major sport: 1B Bill Hawksworth for batting .500 and "whose play around the base was a thing of beauty," and strikeout phenom Bortz. Bortz would later become a highly decorated World War II Navy aviator in the Pacific, including being awarded two Navy Cross medals for his actions during the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

Wilson finished the 1959 season with a perfect record of 18–0 and won their first Inter-High baseball championship. Sherman Rees coached the team. In the final game of the season, the Tigers defeated Coolidge 8–1 at Griffith Stadium; lefty Sam Swindells (8–0) pitched, and SS Marty Gorewitz batted 4 for 4. Swindells would be named the Daily News 1960 Baseball Player of the Year.

The 1962 Tigers, now coached by Bill Richardson, played back to the Inter-High Championship game. Wilson curveball ace Kent Feddeman's extra-inning 4-hit victory over Anacostia earned Wilson the right to play for another championship. Three days later, they defeated a strong Phelps team 1–0 in extra innings at Georgetown University. Feddeman pitched again, defeating Phelps pitcher Ed Cook despite Cook's 2-hitter. The key to the victory was the solid defense of Wilson SS Pete Swindells.

By 2008, the Tigers had won sixteen consecutive DCIAA baseball championships.[36] At the end of that school year, Coach and AD Eddie Saah retired from coaching with seventeen years at the helm of the Wilson baseball program.[36] Former Assistant Coach Eddie Smith was named as the new baseball coach.

Through their 2011 season, the Wilson baseball program won nineteen consecutive DCIAA championships. Even more remarkable, Wilson's last DCIAA loss was in 1999, in a game against Dunbar High School.

Wilson's basketball teams played an exhibition-only schedule in Wilson's first year, 1935–1936. Their first official Inter-High Series games took place in the 1936–37 school year. In the following year of competition – the 1937–38 season – Charles Findley was named Wilson's first All High for basketball. (This selection followed two Wilson baseball players in spring of 1937 and a football player in fall of 1937.)

Wilson's first Inter-High Championship win was in basketball in 1942. The squad was coached by Tony Kupka and led by Donald Hillock and Fred Vinson, both of whom were named to the All High team. In the semifinals, Wilson won 28–24 over the Roosevelt team under coach Red Auerbach. The "Green Tigers" then decisively won the Inter-High title by beating Central, 46–23.

Wilson won back-to-back Inter-High championship titles in 1953 and 1954. In 1952–1953, the top scorer was Lon Herzbrun. In one game against McKinley Tech, Herzbrun scored 41 points – breaking the Inter-High single-game scoring record. Herzbrun also broke the Inter-High single-season scoring record, and this win ended Tech's run of 30 consecutive victories. That same year, Tennessee-bound Herzbrun was named to the first team All Met football team and the first team All Met basketball team, the only Wilson athlete ever to earn that double honor. In Wilson's 1953–54 basketball year, sophomore Lew Luce led the team in scoring; he broke Herzbrun's Inter-High single-season scoring record on the final day of the 1954 regular season. Luce went on to be named three times to the All Met basketball team.

Wilson's inaugural football team, coached by Carl Heintel, played its first (exhibition season) game on October 16, 1936, a 12–0 victory vs. St. Albans in a driving rainstorm. The team went 3–2 in a non-Inter-High exhibition season in 1936. The stars of the squad were RB Dave Tate (who scored Wilson's first-ever touchdown), RB Nick Cokinos, and E Johnny Stevens.

Wilson football officially joined the Inter-High Series for the 1937 season. For his play on the gridiron in the fall of 1937, E Johnny Stevens was named as Wilson's first All High player for football. (Two baseball players had been named that spring for Wilson's first-ever entries into the All High selections.)

The new Wilson Stadium opened during the football season of 1939. The "Presidents," as they were frequently called by the newspaper sportswriters in the early years, played their first home football game in Wilson Stadium on October 6, 1939, against Landon. The official flag-raising dedication took place on October 27 in front of a capacity crowd of 2,000 before the kickoff of the 1939 Inter-High home opener vs. Western.

In the 1949 season, under Coach Joe Carlo, the Tigers football squad outscored opponents by 206 to 77. They went on to win their first Inter-High Championship by beating McKinley Tech by a score of 21 to 20, made possible by three extra points from placekicker Dick Sebastian. The following weekend, the Tigers played in the Second Annual City Championship game against Catholic League champions Gonzaga in front of 7,949 fans in Griffith Stadium; the Tigers lost the game with a final score of 12–7. Stars of that team were B Lee Brinson, E Pete Haley, C Preston Kavanaugh, T Don Meaney, and B Leo Speros.

Three seasons later, in 1952, Wilson went unbeaten under the direction of Coach Joe Carlo. The team won its second Inter-High Football Championship in front of 7,000 fans. Although the Western Red Raiders were considered the underdog, they scored a 13–0 lead before the Wilson offense took control and won 41–16. RB Mike Sommer, who had won the Inter-High Track Sprint Champion and been named as All Met Running Back, ran for more than 150 yards (140 m) and scored five touchdowns. The Wilson team continued to win its only City Championship in football: on December 5, 1952, Wilson beat Catholic League champion St. John's with a score of 24–6 before a crowd of 12,000 in Griffith Stadium. The Tigers' defense dominated the second half of the championship game, denying St. John's any first downs or even access past midfield. Stars of the Wilson performance in that game, and also All Met players, were T Max Carpenter, B Lon Herzbrun, B Mike Sommer, and G Chico Stone.

Wilson players participated in the first integrated high school football game ever played in the District, after the historic Brown v. Board of Education decision came down in May 1954. On December 4, 1954, five Wilson players – Don McMurray, John Webster, Bob Rogers, Mike Hixson, and Leland Phillips – played on a mixed black and white team before a crowd of 8,800 at Griffith Stadium. The integrated Inter-High All Stars beat St. John's, 12–7, to end the St. John's thirteen-game winning streak and capture the 1954 City Football Championship.

The Woodrow Wilson cross-country team, coached by Alfred Collins, won their first Inter-High championship on November 6, 1963. The championship race was held at the Langston Golf Course. Seniors Charlie Hudson and Charlie Smith finished second and sixth respectively, while sophomore Doug Coffin finished eight. Throughout the season, both Hudson and Smith set several records. Regardless, Eastern and Spingarn High School were the favorites in the championship. The depth of Wilson's team soundly defeated both. The Washington Post named Hudson and Smith to the first team all-met cross-country team, both of whom were founding members of the Sports International Track Club with members from BCC, Gonzaga, St. Albans, Episcopal, and the American University. The club attracted several world-class athletes who represented the United States, Trinidad & Tobago, and Barbados at the Olympic Games.

The Wilson boys' ultimate frisbee team is currently ranked eighth in the country and the girls' team 17th, according to Ultiworld magazine as of April 5, 2019.[37]

The Tigers athletic program maintains the only crew team among D.C. public high schools.

In 2007, Wilson became the first public high school in Washington, D.C. to play varsity ice hockey with a team in the Maryland Scholastic Hockey League's Capitol Conference. The team plays its home games at Fort Dupont Ice Arena, the only public ice rink in the District of Columbia.

The Wilson varsity softball won the DCIAA championship for the three consecutive years in 2007, 2008, and 2009. In 2009 the team, led by seniors Kathleen McLain and Rachel Bitting, played Georgetown Visitation in the Congressional Bank Softball Classic in which the softball champion of the DC public schools played the champion of the DC private schools. Wilson won the game, 3–2; McLain struck out eight batters without allowing any walks, and Bitting hit a walk-off double in the bottom of the last inning.[38]

The Wilson swim team returned for the 2006–2007 season and claimed the city championship in the same year.

Wilson's wrestling program has been intermittent. In 2005, Wilson ended its wrestling program, becoming the last public school in Washington DC to have a wrestling team. However, in 2012, the program was restarted.

The Wilson Cheerleading team won the 2014 DCIAA championship title.

Jackson-Reed Stadium opened for duty in 1939. An artificial turf field was installed over the summer of 2007. A sound system, press box, and lights were also added to the stadium. The stadium is now used for several sports, including soccer, football, and lacrosse.

There has been an aquatic facility on the high school's campus since the late 1970s. It first opened in 1978 but was condemned and demolished in 2007. A new Aquatic Center for Ward 3 was completed in 2009,[1] with an indoor 50-meter swimming pool, a children's pool, and other facilities.[39]

Jackson-Reed's school newspaper is called The Beacon. It began publication in 1935.[40]

In 2012 Jay Childers wrote that the quality of the publication and the publishing frequency of the Beacon declined as the school had increased difficulties.[7] Historically, the school administration did not, and still does not, review Beacon articles before publication,[41] even though the U.S. Supreme Court in Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier stated that principals have the right to have control over newspaper content. In August 2015, Principal Kimberly Martin announced that the newspaper would be required to allow her and her staff to review all articles before publication. This led to protests from students, including a Change.org petition.[42] The newspaper staff criticized and stated opposition to the proposal.[42][43] By September, Martin and the co-editors agreed to end the prior review plan.[41] Martin had canceled publishing a newspaper article at her previous school in Colorado.[44]

Students also publish an annual literary magazine called L.A.V.A..