Phoenix, AZ

Booker T. Washington School & Memorial Room
DESCRIPTION: Site of the first all Black elementary school in Phoenix

ADDRESS: New Times Building, 1201 East Jefferson Street

PHONE: 602- 271-0040

Phoenix Union Colored High School
DESCRIPTION: Although the state did not mandate segregated schools, increasing hostility towards African Americans led the community to build the school in 1926 it was Arizona’s first Black high school; the name George Washington Carver High was adopted in 1943 in honor of the great inventor; integration of the Arizona school system led the facility to cease operation as a school in 1955; today this building on the National Register of Historic Places also home to the George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center

DAYS & HOURS: Mon-Fri and third Saturday of the month 9a-3p

ADDRESS: 415 East Grant Street

PHONE: 602-254-7516

Swindall House Site
DESCRIPTION: Original site of the only hotel where African American athletes and performers were allowed to stay during the Jim Crow Era; Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Louis, Louis Armstrong and Jackie Robinson were among the many notable guests; the building was raised some years ago

ADDRESS: 1021 East Washington Street

Lincoln Ragsdale Executive Air Terminal
DESCRIPTION: named after Dr. Lincoln J. Ragsdale, Sr. (1926-1995), a leading activist in the battle for Civil Rights in Arizona; Ragsdale’s pioneering accomplishments were many including becoming one of the first Black pilots to serve at Luke Air Field in Litchfield Park, Arizona after graduating in 1945 from Tuskegee flying school; he had leadership roles in the Greater Phoenix Council for Civic Unity, the local NAACP and the Phoenix Urban League; his desegregation efforts in Phoenix are legendary as well, including successes at Phoenix high schools in the mid 50’s (prior to Brown v. Board of Education), desegregating, in 1953, the Encanto District, Phoenix’s most affluent and segregated neighborhood; and in later years General Electric, Motorola, Sperry Rand and other influential corporations in Phoenix; over the next 30 years he is credited with continual efforts towards diversity in Phoenix’s public and private sectors and for entrepreneurial opportunities for people of color in Arizona; fortunately, Ragsdale lived long enough to witness the creation of the Martin Luther King holiday in Arizona by popular vote in November of 1992; while in the terminal, visit the lobby plaque of this visionary leader

ADDRESS: Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport

PHONE: 602-273-8874