Bruce High School

Bruce High School is a Tennessee historical marker in Dyersburg, Dyer County.

801 Vernon Street, Dyersburg, Tennessee

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Dyer County Colored High School was established in 1893 on Depot Street. William H. Fort, a Fisk University graduate, began as founding principal of the county's first African American high school, which also served students in Obion, Lake, and Lauderdale Counties. Around 1900 the school was renamed for U. S. Senator Blanche K. Bruce, who in 1879, was the first African American to preside over the U. S. Senate. Continued By 1906 Bruce High School was noted for its academic excellence. In 1912 Marshall L. Morrison, Sr. became its principal, a position he held until 1946, after which, his son Morrison, Jr. succeeded him. Due to school desegregation, Bruce High School closed in 1972, leaving a legacy of learning, sports, and its signature marching band. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on July 6, 2023.

TodayHistorical map

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David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1844 · Kentucky (H. S. Tanner, 1844) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1862 · Johnson's Kentucky & Tennessee (1862) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1864 · Kentucky And Tennessee (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1878 · (Map 6 - Indian Territory, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee). (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1895 · Gen. map XVIII. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

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Marker text and location from the Tennessee Historical Commission, as the Commission publishes them on its marker map.

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