Crispus Attucks Park and Mural (800 N. Wall Street)

(Click the photo above for an audio tour)

Attucks High School served as a school for the African American Community from 1948 to 1964. The history of the school and property is best summarized by the following research by former Carbondale Community High School student Brad Pace which was published in the Southern Illinoisan on June 7, 1999: The founders of Carbondale set aside a block on East Main Street and on West Main Street to build schools. In 1867 the East Side School at 400 East Main Street was built. SIU's first African American male graduate, Alexander Lane, served as East Side School's first Principal from 1871-1881. The school was enlarged in 1874 and became the school for Carbondale’s growing number of African American children. This was to comply with the Illinois Common School Law of 1855, requiring African American children to be educated. Conditions became crowded at the East Side School, where 250 pupils were housed in six small rooms. On top of overcrowding, the East Side School was severely underfunded via systemic racism. Carbondale’s African American population petitioned the Board of Education for a new building. In 1914, a special election approved building a new grade school, and by 1915, a new building replaced the old East Side School.