Dunbar High School (East Spencer, North Carolina)

Dunbar High School was a public, all black high school located in East Spencer, North Carolina.

Dunbar High School, originally named East Spencer Negro School, history dates back to 1900 when it was a one-room school house. Over its time the school grew to multiple rooms, then in 1921 the school built an 11-classroom building with an auditorium, library, office lunchroom and basement. In 1958, The school was named in honor of Paul Laurence Dunbar, a poet whose parents were freed slaves from Kentucky. He was one of the first African American poets to gain national recognition.^[1]

After integration, Dunbar High School was renamed again to North Rowan Middle School. In the 1990s, The middle school moved to an alternate site, and the original building (still owned by the Rowan-Salisbury School System became a community center with the name Paul Laurence Dunbar Center.^[1]

In 2004, a group of former alumni held a meeting in Salisbury, North Carolina with the purpose of forming an association and to discuss avenues to assist in the preservation of the Dunbar School buildings. They secured information to apply for a school's listing as a national historical site on the national registry, and their organization became incorporated as the Dunbar School Alumni Association, Inc. Today, the associations mission is focused on awarding scholarships to relatives of former students, teachers, and administrators of the school.^[2]