Princeton High School and Its Only Principal

Principal Walter H. Martin

In the Bossier Parish Libraries History Center, we have oral histories of Bossier Parish residents who share their memories of how things were back in the olden days. Among those in the collection is the oral history of Walter H. Martin and his wife Johnnye Scott Martin, life-long educators in Bossier Parish. They were students during segregation and educators during integration.

Martin was born in Benton, Louisiana, in 1912 and grew up during the days of segregation. In reminiscing about his school days, we learn that his elementary school was Benton Colored School. A two-room schoolhouse that taught grades one through seven. He recalls having Charlotte Mitchell as his teacher there.

Mitchell championed quality education for the black community throughout the first half of the 20th century. She spent 30 years as a teacher and 13 as a superintendent of the Bossier Parish black school system. In 1954 the Bossier City Colored School was renamed Charlotte Mitchell High School in her honor.

The Bossier Parish Training School opened in Benton in 1928 offering black students a post-elementary education through the eleventh grade, which was as far as they went back then. Before then, black students in high school had to take a train to Central Colored High School in Shreveport. Martin was in the Training School’s first graduating class in 1932. Martin had Oliver Mitchell, Charlotte’s husband, as his teacher in high school.

Martin graduated high school with a one-year teaching certificate allowing him to teach elementary school. With a one-year teaching certificate, you could teach for one year, and during the summer, they could go to college and recertify and teach another year. Martin knew he wanted to teach and enrolled full-time at Southern University. Upon receiving his degree in 1940, he began his teaching career at Princeton Elementary School.

Principal Walter H. Martin with
Princeton High School's 1st graduating class 1954

In 1951, Principal Martin circulated petitions to prove that the people would support a bond issue for Princeton to have a black high school. All but one person signed the petitions. Princeton High School became the third black high school in the parish and celebrated its first graduating class in 1954. The other two were the Bossier Parish Training School and Bossier City Colored High.

From 1940 through 1970, under Principal Martin's leadership, the school grew from a four-teacher elementary school to a thirty-teacher school plant comprising two modern brick classroom buildings for grades one through twelfth, a vocational agriculture building, a canning center, a music center, a visual aid room, two teachers' cottages, a one-thousand seating capacity gymnasium-auditorium, a well-lighted athletic field, and a 5,000-gallon water supply tower.

In 1968 and 1969, students at Princeton High School were offered the Freedom of Choice System. Students who wanted to integrate could. Approximately 50 students during this time volunteered to attend Haughton High School. On February 2, 1970, Princeton High School was closed because of court-ordered integration.

Princeton students in grades one through six went to Platt School. Students in grades seven through twelve went to Haughton High School. The Princeton teachers also moved along with their students. However, students at Haughton maintained separate classrooms until later that fall. The senior class held their graduation ceremony at Princeton High School in May 1970. They were the last graduating class of Princeton High School.

When Princeton High School was closed, it was repainted and fixed up. They replaced the gymnasium floor, added dressing rooms, and demolished the old band building. The office area was located facing the area that is the teachers' parking lot today. Princeton School reopened in September of 1970 to grades four through seven.

Mr. Martin later became an administrator in the Bossier Parish School Board Central Office. During his years with Bossier Parish Schools, he received the Outstanding Educator of the Year Award, was cited for his contribution to education as Supervisor of Social Studies for Junior and Senior Schools, and served as Coordinator of the Drug Abuse Education Program. Mr. Martin was also a Coordinator of the Close-Up Program and accompanied a group of teachers and students to Washington, D.C. in March of 1979. Later that year, he retired from the Bossier Parish School system.

There are three exhibits of the Bossier Parish black high schools known as the ‘Big Five’ on display. The exhibits are at the Bossier Parish Libraries History Center, Benton, and East 80 branches. Please stop by anytime Monday-Thursday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Visit our Facebook page, @BPLHistory, for a video about Princeton High history and to hear the stories of alumni that were in the last graduating class.

By: Amy Robertson