Albert Sidney Johnston High School served as a comprehensive, coeducational high school in the Austin Independent School District from 1960 to 2008. Located in Austin, Texas, the school was named after General Albert Sidney Johnston, who served as Secretary of War for the Republic of Texas and as a brigadier general for the Texian Army of the Republic of Texas, the United States Army, and the Confederate States Army.
From its inception in 1960, Johnston High School was well known for a wide variety of vocational and technical programs that prepared students for work in such fields as cosmetology, printing, auto mechanics, industry and business. Primarily a school for the Hispanic and African-American students of East Austin, Johnston High School grew to be a 5A school and weathered the challenges of desegregation, forced busing, and the end of desegregation.
From 1988 to 2002, Johnston High School housed the signature Liberal Arts Academy, a college-preparatory liberal arts magnet program that brought students to Johnston High School from throughout the Austin independent school District. Beginning in 2004, Johnston High School hosted International High School, a "school within a school" that provided an intensive English program for ninth- and tenth-grade immigrant and refugee students who were bused to Johnston High School from throughout Austin.
In 2008, Johnston High School was the first school in Texas to be closed and reconstituted under the accountability system of Texas Education Agency Commissioner Robert Scott.
School information
School name In 1958, the Austin School Board approved the construction of a new high school in East Austin, some 3,000 feet from a bend in the Colorado River. Construction on the facility—originally named Riverside High School—began in 1959.
The program for the school's 25th jubilee in 1985 suggests that the school was named Riverside High School "partly because it was on the [Colorado] river, but also because there was a well-known high school in Fort Worth at the time named Riverside High School."Johnston High School 25th Jubilee Program The school's 1985 yearbook similarly shares, "While under construction, Johnston was called Riverside High School because it was near the Colorado River. Things soon changed. 'River rats' wasn't an appropriate nickname [for a mascot]."The Confederate [the yearbook of A.S. Johnston High School], 1985, page 2. The 1985 jubilee program confirms that even before the school was opened, "the nickname 'Riverside Rats' was already being applied. So several students at Allan Junior High, who would be coming to the new high school, petitioned the school board to change the name. Besides, hidden in the school board regulations was a ruling that stated that all schools in Austin must be named for a person and that person must be dead."Johnston High School 25th Jubilee Program
Students of Allan Junior High submitted a list of possible names for a renamed school. The list of possible names that came before the Austin School Board included such heroes as David Crockett, John H. Reagan, Sidney Lanier, and Albert Sidney Johnston, an American Civil War hero buried in Austin.
Board minutes reflect that the school board ceded to the request of future students to change the name of the school to honor "some historical or educational figure such as the other high schools of the city." Three names were ultimately considered by the Board: Davy Crockett High School, Coronado High School, and Albert Sidney Johnston High School. With heightened activities focused on the centennial celebration of the American Civil War (1860–1865), the school was renamed after Albert Sidney Johnston, an American Civil War general buried at the Texas State Cemetery, 3.5 miles west of the school. The next two high schools built by the Austin Public Schools during the centennial celebration would also be named for Confederate heroes: Sidney Lanier High School (which opened in 1961) and John H. Reagan High School (which opened in 1965), prompting some to speculate that the naming of these three schools for Confederate heroes was a "push to glorify the Confederacy as a deliberate slap in the face to minorities and the federal government after the 1954 Supreme Court school desegregation decision Brown v. Board of Education."
It seems that Albert Sidney Johnston, a native-Kentuckian, was relatively unknown at that time. In an Austin Statesman article entitled, "Yes, Ma'm, He's Texan," Anita Brewer wrote, "Some Austinites are perplexed about this man, Johnston. Just who was this fellow? Why was he important enough for the Austin Board of Education and the future students of Austin's new eastside high school to scuttle a perfectly good name like 'Riverside' to name the school for Johnston? The School Board voted unanimously Monday night to rename the new school the Albert Sidney Johnston High School…. Historians are cheering the board's decision as a fine one and a belated and overdue tribute to one of the greatest of the early Texans."Austin Statesman, August 1960 A photo of Johnston's tomb at the Texas State Cemetery was featured in the newspaper, with the caption, "Johnston interest is revived as School Board names new high school for famed Confederate."
With Founding Principal Gordon Bailey's death thirty years later, on January 27, 1990, alumni rallied to rename Johnston High School for their longtime principal of happy memory. In May 1990, a petition was brought by alumni to the board of trustees of the Austin independent school District, to rename the school for Bailey. The school's newspaper reported: "'Papa Bailey,' as he was affectionately called, often met his students at the door each day. His devotion to the school was deep, working weekends and coming in to help do school repairs himself. It is this kind of spirit that moved his alumni to attempt to honor him with a renaming of the school [to which] he gave so much. But many students now attending Johnston reacted with disbelief and protest. 'When you take the name, you also take our identity,' Joy A. Foster said.""Name change issue to be resolved: Board to determine fate of school’s name after public hearing,” by Rochelle Hayes, printed in Shiloh [the school newspaper of A.S. Johnston High School], vol. 30, no. 6, May 31, 1990. The Board did not rename the school for Bailey in 1990, but broke ground in 1992 for a middle school in Austin named in Bailey's memory.
In 2008, Johnston High School was the first high school in Texas to be closed under a new state accountability system. In August 2008, a new high school, Eastside Memorial High School, was opened in the same facility. In 2009, the school was divided into two campuses: Eastside Green Tech and Eastside Global Tech. On May 23, 2011, partly to honor the legacy of Johnston High School, the school was renamed Eastside Memorial High School at the Johnston Campus.
Memorabilia from Johnston High School can be found at the Johnston Rams Legacy Hall, located inside the cafeteria of Eastside Memorial High School at the Johnston Campus.
School colors
The Johnston High School colors were scarlet and Columbia blue, colors often associated with the flags of the Confederate States of America. The program for the school's 25th jubilee shares that "students of the new school chose everything. It was their school" and that the choice of Columbia blue was "somewhat rare as a school color at the time."Johnston High School 25th Jubilee Program The choice of Columbia blue is interesting insofar as Confederate flags typically contain navy blue; a lighter blue, similar to Columbia blue, was contained in the Second Confederate Navy Jack (1863–1865).
School spirit often centered around "the Red & Blue", and various school programs and events incorporated the colors.
School songs The Johnston High School song, or alma mater, was "Loyal Hearts", which was sung to the tune of Jean Sibelius' "Finlandia". The words were: "With loyal hearts, we hail our alma mater, praising her name for all the world to hear. Her colors fly up in the sky triumphantly and wave us on to glorious victory. Her Red & Blue, her spirits true do testify of (or 'to') praises sung for mighty Johnston High!" The lyrics are attributed to Jacqueline McGee, an English teacher & yearbook sponsors at Johnston High School, who would later become the school's first Dean of Girls, then Austin's first woman principal, first at Burnet Junior High and later at Stephen F. Austin High School.
The program for the school's 25th jubilee in 1985 notes that "the tradition of linking little fingers during the school song was, according to Mr. Bailey, a common tradition among high schools at the time and a symbol of unity among the students."Johnston High School 25th Jubilee Program
Johnston also had a fight song entitled "Fighting Rams". Its lyrics were: "We are the Rams of Johnston High. Invincible we stand, united in our praises of the best school in the land. Let's give a cheer, a rousing cheer. Let's fight to win the game. In victory, we'll crown our school with glory and fame. Let's fight! Let's fight! For Johnston High, let's fight! Let's fight for the Red & Blue and victory tonight! Go! Fight! Go, Rams! Go!"
School mascot The mascot of Johnston High School was the ram.
The program for the school's 25th jubilee in 1985 shares that "students of the new school chose everything. It was their school, …and the principal, Mr. Bailey, was determined that they should have a voice in selecting everything from its mascot to its yearbook name."Johnston High School 25th Jubilee Program The school's 1985 yearbook shares that "rumors circulate that a ram was selected since a ram once roamed free around the school when it was first built and nothing but cow pastures surrounded the school. Another version accounting for the name was that since the Los Angeles Rams were a popular and powerful football team at the time Johnston was seeking a mascot, the Rams were a likely choice."The Confederate [the yearbook of A.S. Johnston High School], 1985, page 2. The program for the school's 25th jubilee confirms, "The students selected the Ram as their mascot because the Los Angeles Rams were a powerful football team at the time."Johnston High School 25th Jubilee Program
School yearbooks suggest that during the school's first year, the Fall Student Council led an effort to purchase a ram, named "King Ramses I", which accompanied students to athletic competitions. During the school's second year, the Boys' Service Club was formed to take care of the mascot and to transport it to and from athletic competitions. After the death of King Ramses I in 1964, the Boys' Service Club mounted its head in the front hall of the school, and a new mascot by the same name was purchased.
The program for the school's 25th jubilee in 1985 offers a slightly different history: that "many high schools had live mascots in the 60s, and Johnston was no exception. A live ram was given to the school by a student's father; he was promptly named Ramses. He was kept at a student's house, but he went to all football games. At one game, another team was represented by a live horse with a student rider. The horse was spooked by Ramses and nearly threw his rider. The school board then ruled that no school could have a live mascot. So Johnston had to get rid of Ramses! A student group at the time, perhaps the Boys' Club, decided to slaughter him and use the cooked meat as a fundraiser. The feast was held at a local restaurant, and Ramses' head was stuffed and mounted and hung in the main hall of Johnston. The head was taken down in 1983 because of its dirtied condition and is being cleaned."Johnston High School 25th Jubilee Program