Howard High School, named for General
Oliver Otis Howard, who founded
Howard University and was the Commissioner for the
Freedmen's Bureau from 1865 to 1874, opened in 1867 at 12th and Orange St. with educator
Edwina Kruse as its principal. Despite being a public school, Howard received very little state funding, particularly compared to white-only schools, and conditions rapidly declined. In the early 1920s, businessman
Pierre S. du Pont, who had a history of supporting education for Black students in Delaware, donated a swath of land in Wilmington for the purpose of building a new Howard High School. In 1953, Howard was the subject of
Gebhart v. Belton, a desegregation case wherein parents of Howard students sued for the opportunity for their children to attend all-white schools in their town rather than the much-further-away Howard High School, which by this point had become run-down.
Killing of Amy Joyner-Francis On April 21, 2016, Amy Inita Joyner-Francis, a female 16-year-old student at Howard High School of Technology was assaulted and killed by a fellow student, Trinity Carr in a school bathroom while two other students allegedly assisted. The incident was widely publicized and started controversy about the appropriate charges of teenagers involved in situations of
school violence and
assault. Two of the students were convicted of
conspiracy and one of the two was convicted of
negligent homicide. The latter conviction was later overturned in a ruling that has faced some criticism. A third student was
acquitted of a conspiracy charge. ==Academics==