News & Updates

The first day of school can be exciting and scary all at once. It was all that and more for a group of Memphis elementary school children in the year 1961.

Historical Markers were placed at Bruce, Gordon, Rozelle, and Springdale elementary schools to commemorate the contributions of the Memphis 13 to Memphis history.

Harry Williams signed his name on a 20-foot-tall portrait of himself in the cafeteria of Bruce Elementary School, in the building where he learned to read and write and in the room where the first grader was not allowed to eat his lunch.

To kick off this Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend, pioneers in civil rights history are being honored in Memphis. Nearly 60 years ago, three young African American students helped integrate Memphis City Schools by attending Bruce Elementary School.