Florida Historical Markers Programs - Marker Detail

Description: The Oakland School opened on this site in 1928. The school accommodated first through eighth grades. It operated with funds from the county school board and the Julius Rosenwald Foundation, a charitable organization that provided access to education for African Americans in the South. Black high school students in Haines City were required to travel to schools in Bartow or Lakeland until 1930, when the Oakland School was accredited as a senior high school. Its first graduating class of four students matriculated that same year. As one of five black high schools in the county, the renamed Oakland High served students from the neighboring towns of Loughman, Davenport, Dundee, Lake Hamilton, and unincorporated northeast Polk County. The school expanded in 1952 to include a gymnasium, auditorium/cafeteria, dedicated elementary school, and industrial arts and home economics building. The campus spanned from Avenue D to Avenue E, bordered by 11th Street on the east and 8th Street on the west. After the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and public school integration, Oakland High closed in 1968. Many of the school buildings were razed in 1977, but the music building still remains as part of Oakland Neighborhood Center.