Phillis Wheatley High School AKA Brackenridge High school

Description

The original Brackenridge High School on the city's south side, which had been built in 1919, was replaced with a new structure during the 1970's, the District decided to rename it Phillis Wheatley High School, in honor of the first African-American author. Unfortunately, the name change did not please the close-knit alumni of the original Brackenridge campus, many of whom had attended the old school decades earlier, when that area of town was a prominent middle-class neighborhood. They simply wanted to hold on to the prominent local name with which they identified their high school traditions of years past. Their influence was strong enough that the San Antonio Independent School District changed the name of the new facility, located a few blocks east of the King William Historic District, back to Brackenridge High School, (in 1988).