MILTON — The T.R. Jackson Pre-K cubs used to be the T.R. Jackson High School Lions, or the "ferocious Lions," as Julia Jenkins Brown, president of the T.R. Jackson High alumni association, said.
The high school, founded in 1951, served African American students in the Milton area when segregation still existed.
Brown said she graduated from the school in 1959 with 10 classmates and, while she saw classmates go on to become teachers and doctors, she stayed in Milton and returned to the school after starting her family to work at what became a pre-k school.
Brown said she used to be a majorette as a Lion and participated in parades through downtown Milton.
"It was a great school. I was proud and we had a wonderful principal, Theodis Roosevelt Jackson (who also founded the school)," she said.
By 1968, the last class of T.R. Jackson graduated and the African American students had all moved to Milton High School. Brown said during 1968, seventh to 11th-grade students moved to Milton High but the seniors wanted to stay to graduate from T.R. Jackson.
As for integration, Brown said, "I never thought it would be possible."
While the school today serves Pre-K students, the original buildings still stand as well as two white lions atop pillars at the rear entrance.
Brown was involved in installing a plaque at the school in 2008 to commemorate the school's founder, Theodis Jackson. She said it's been about a decade since the graduates have gathered for a reunion, but they look forward to seeing each other in the future.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Remembering T.R. Jackson High School, before integration