TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 For generations of Tampa families, Dunbar Elementary Magnet School has been more than just a school, it\u2019s been a cornerstone of the community.<\/p>\n
As it celebrates 100 years, school leaders are reflecting on a history that dates back even further.<\/p>\n
First established as Dunbar Elementary School in 1926, the school has grown and changed over the last 100 years, but Principal Lakeyshea Bryant said she knows one thing has remained the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cComing in, right away it felt 100 percent like family because all of the rich history,\u201d Bryant said. \u201cWe have a lot of families that bring their children, bring their siblings, on and on over the years so it\u2019s very nice, we\u2019re very close-knit, a very bonded family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Families and community members all came together this week, ahead of the new school year, to celebrate and there\u2019s actually even more than 100 years to celebrate.<\/p>\n
Tampa historian Ashley Morrow said the school has a lot of rich history.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love looking up origin stories, so for Dunbar, I actually saw it was documented in 1903 as the West Tampa Negro School,\u201d Morrow said.<\/p>\n
Morrow founded Black Tampa Historians Incorporated.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo West Tampa was established in 1895, and with the cigar factories coming in the area they needed a school for the Black children,\u201d she said. \u201cSo in comes West Tampa Negro School, which eventually gets renamed to Dunbar.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morrow added that she hopes this centennial celebration sparks conversations with families.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want them to know that they are in a school, in an institution that is historic,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd important and was necessary and came during a time of segregation, a time of Jim Crowe, and that\u2019s its original origin story and it\u2019s never going to change so they should all know it.\u201d<\/p>\n
One hundred years later, the school\u2019s biggest lesson may be remembering where it all began.<\/p>\n
Dubar Elementary Magnet School offers a medical academy for students in third through fifth grade. It\u2019s one of the few programs of its kind in the state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 For generations of Tampa families, Dunbar Elementary Magnet School has been more than just a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[274,54547,770,113,5711,115,135,137,136,278,835],"class_list":["post-365301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-top-stories","tag-back-to-school","tag-community-news","tag-education","tag-fallon-silcox","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}