Dunbar High’s women’s basketball team in 1947-48

Dunbar High’s women’s basketball team in 1947-48

Dunbar High’s women’s basketball team in 1947-48

Dunbar High was in East Spencer. The team included in the front row, left to right: Ruby Dalton, Jewell Witherspoon, Betty Kelly (co-captains) and Maggie Cherry. Middle row: Nona Bolt, Carolyn Kincaid, Earlene Mack and Annie Lois Kelly. Third row: Lillian Hall, Patsy White, Frances Bailey and Mattie Bell Brown. Coach Harry Koontz is standing in the back.

East Spencer is a historically Black town in North Carolina. During Jim-Crow-era racial segregation, East Spencer’s Dunbar School was the African American school for grades 1-12 outside of the city of Salisbury.

History. The school was founded in 1870 by William Syphax, President of the Board of Trustees for Colored Schools, as the Preparatory High School for Colored Youth. The school was started at the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church. From 1891 to 1916, it became known as M Street High School.