Page 14 - Florida Sentinel 2-11-22

Black History: The History Behind The Names
Potter Elementary School
REV. MARCELLUS D. POTTER
Potter Elementary School was named in honor of Rev. Marcellus D. Potter, who was born in Cuthbert, GA. He moved to Palatka in 1913 and opened a printing shop. The following year, he relocated to Tampa and launched the Tampa Guardian, one of the state’s first African American owned newspapers. His office was lo- cated at 1416 Orange Street.
By the 1920s, the newspaper was considered one of the top ten newspapers in the country. It circulated to 11,000 sub- scribers by 1938. He married Mary Ellen Davis in 1920, and the two continued to oper- ate the newspaper. The name of the company was the Tampa Bulletin Publishing Com- pany. The Tampa Bulletin was sold to the owner of the Florida Sentinel, C. Blythe Andrews, in 1959.
He often worked closely with the NAACP and stood out as a champion of those unable to help themselves.
Rev. Potter also served as the Vice President of Central Life Insurance Company. He died on January 31, 1947. His wife died suddenly on October 24, 1948. The couple had no children.
Potter Elementary School was named in his honor in Sep- tember 1960.
Washington Elementary School
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON
Booker T. Washington,
named after the famous scientist, opened in 1925, as the first African American junior high school in Tampa. It quickly ex- panded to offer high school until Middleton High School opened in 1935. It was then converted back to a junior high school.
After the desegregation plan of 1971, the school became a 7th grade center, and later an ele- mentary school, in 2005.
Warren Hope Dawson Elementary School
ATTORNEY WARREN H. DAWSON
The newly constructed War- ren H. Dawson Elementary School opened for the 2017- 2018 school year. It is built on a 15-acre plot located at 12961 Boggy Creek Road, south of Big Bend Road and east of Balm Riverview Road. The school is named after Warren Hope Dawson, a practicing Tampa attorney who specializes in civil
rights and labor relations. Daw- son earned an undergraduate degree from Florida A&M Uni- versity, served in the U. S. Army from 1961 to 1963 and gradu- ated with a law degree from Howard University three years later. In 1974 and for 27 years thereafter, he championed de- segregation of the public-school system in Hillsborough County.
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