Historic - Old Stanton High School

The Trustees of Florida Institute established Stanton High School in 1868 as the first public black school in Jacksonville. It was named for Edwin M. Stanton, an outspoken abolitionist and Secretary of War under Abraham Lincoln. This masonry vernacular style structure, completed in 1917, was the only black high school in the country at the time. James Weldon Johnson, the first African American to pass the Florida bar exam, and the lyricist of Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing, "the black national anthem," was a student at Stanton High and served as principal from 1894 to 1902. It closed as a public school in 1971. Stanton College Preparatory School was opened in 1981. This school became the Duval County School System's first magnet school. This new school is located at 1149 W 13Th St.