The Jefferson School opened in 1865, just months after Emancipation. Many of the first students, including Jesse Sammons, Rives Minor, and Benjamin Tonsler, taught the following generations in the city and county. The school moved to a new building on Fourth Street NW in 1894 and Jefferson High School was built next to it in 1926. City and county Black high schools were consolidated in 1951 with the building of Burley High School. Jefferson High School then became the city’s all Black elementary school until its closing in 1965.