James B. Dudley High School


James Benson Dudley High School is a four-year public high school located in Guilford County in the city of Greensboro, North Carolina. Dudley High School was founded in 1929 as the first black high school in Guilford County, in a school system segregated by law. The school was named for James Benson Dudley.

History

The high school building was designed by architect Charles C. Hartmann and built in 1929. James B. Dudley Senior High School is a three-story, U-shaped, brick building with Classical Revival and Collegiate Gothic design elements. It has a one-story slightly projecting entrance portico with Doric order columns added in the mid-1970s, a stepped parapet, and crenellated stair towers. The gymnasium was attached in 1936. A separate brick gymnasium building was constructed in 1959.
James Benson Dudley Senior High School and Gymnasium was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.
The school was central to the 1969 Greensboro uprising when school officials refused to recognize the validity of a write-in candidate for student council, allegedly due to his activism in the Black Power movement. In 1971 through desegregation, Dudley's student population integrated.
Today, the make-up of the school consists of a diverse student enrollment with a predominantly African-American population. Dudley has a traditional education program as well as the Dudley Science, Math, and Technology Academy magnet program. The Science, Math, and Technology Academy provides high-caliber students a strong college preparatory background, which emphasizes mathematics and science along with sufficient writing, research, and technological skills. During their senior year, Dudley Academy Students attend classes on college campuses.
Dudley won two back-to-back football rings. The school colors are blue and gold. Dudley High School has an Advance Vehicle Technology Team that competes in an international competition called the Shell Eco Marathon.

Notable people

Alumni

Faculty

  • Nelle A. Coley, famed educator and civil rights activist, taught English at James B. Dudley High School for over thirty years.