Langston Centre
Langston’s roots can be traced all the way back to 1869, when Dr. Hezekiah B. Hankal (one of the Founding Fathers of Johnson City) bought Town Lot Number 12 from Henry Johnson for $300 in order to establish an African American school in a log cabin on Roan Hill, this was commonly known as Roan School. Dr. Hankal, a physician and minister, taught at Roan School with “Professor Wolfe” as the principal at that time. In 1888, Dr. Hankal and Professor Wolfe began the push to build a school building to teach the growing African-American population in Johnson City.
In 1888, Dr. Hankal and Professor Wolfe began the push to build a school building to teach the growing African-American population in Johnson City. In 1889, the school was moved to Johnson City’s Main Street Christian Church. In 1891-1892, Langston’s future student body met in two Baptist churches during construction of the new school. During the spring of 1893, it met in the Odd Fellows Hall. In the fall of 1893, the students were moved into the new Langston High School, named after John Langston, a distinguished Virginia lawyer during that time and the first African American to be elected to public office in 1856.
On May 22, 1897, Langston graduated its first class with E. Fitzgerald and Julia N. Hankal as it’s only two members.
During the 1920s, Principal Rev. J.H. Byers decided to add two additional grades to the school’s curriculum and Langston became a 9th through 12th grade school.
Several years later, during the tenure of Principal J. Neil Armstrong, Langston earned an “A” rating from the Tennessee Department of Education and was approved by the Southern Association of Secondary Schools as an “A”-rated high school.
During the 1929-30 school year, Langston received $2,400 from the Rosenwald Fund, which was combined with $14,100 in public funding, to construct a six-room shop building.
On May 17, 1954, the United States Supreme Court issued a unanimous 9–0 decision in favor of the Oliver Brown family. Ruling that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
The Johnson City School System was slow to implement the Supreme Court’s ruling, although it had begun debating the topic in 1954. Finally, in 1961, the school board passed a resolution that would slowly integrate one grade a year, beginning with first grade, taking a full 12 years to complete. According to “The History of Washington County,” Johnson City’s African-American community viewed this resolution as “foot dragging and far too slow.” A federal lawsuit was soon filed, and three years later, in 1965, a final court ruling forced the schools to integrate. Even though a few African American students were permitted to transfer from Langston to Science Hill High School during the 1964-65 school year, full integration didn’t occur until the 1965-66 school year, a few months prior to the court ruling.
Langston eventually became the Langston-Biddle Maintenance Center, the storage and maintenance facility for the Johnson City School System. In 2016 storage and maintenance operations were moved to a new location.
Due to being in such a state of disrepair, in 2015 city officials opted to demolish much of the original Langston School but left the gymnasium intact. In 2019 it was transformed into The Langston Centre. The project was spearheaded by Langston Education & Arts Development. The multicultural, multigenerational education center is used for special events, such as performances and professional networking socials.