CLEARWATER, Fla. — Graduates from a Pinellas County school, that was once the only place Black students from the northern part of the county could attend, are getting a piece of history back.

What You Need To Know

  • Pinellas High School was once an all-Black school for students who lived in the northern part of the county

  • Students say Pinellas High School went from grades 8-12

  • Clearwater Intermediate School was changed to Pinellas High Innovation

The school has gone by different names since school integration moved students to neighboring schools. Now, students have the opportunity to bring back part of the past that they say should never be forgotten.

James Feazell Sr. is one of those Pinellas High School graduates.

“We had a lot to be proud of. Our band was exceptional. Not second to any. Our choir, our academic performance and requirements exceeded what people thought a Black school should be able to perform,” Feazell Sr. said. “I thank God for all of my days at dear old Pinellas High School and that was from eighth grade through twelfth grade.”

Pictures of former students who kept in touch over the years and the memories Feazell Sr. and his former classmates have are really all they had left of the school they once knew.

“I believe it was class of ‘68 or ‘69. That was the last year they kept Pinellas High School open,” said Feazell Sr. “Then they allowed the students from Pinellas High School to go to their neighboring school, which would mean go to the predominantly white school in their neighborhood.”

This was after desegregation.

“Throughout the state of Florida and the United States when they closed down predominately Black high schools, they then changed the name of that high school to a middle school,” he said. “They lost part of the community. They say you got what you wanted, but you lost what you had,” he said.

But a group of graduates was determined to get back some of what they lost.

First, by getting the school district to change the name of the school from Clearwater Intermediate School back to Pinellas High, adding the word “innovations.” The only thing they were waiting for was the name change on the sign.

Recently, after some mix ups, a few technical difficulties and the weather, the sign was finally changed to reflect the name change.

Donald Keene, a 1965 graduate, described how he felt when he first saw it.

“When I drove by the other day, I almost stopped in the middle of the road. And I said, ‘Well look at that. Now we’re talking,’” Keene said.

The new school sign means so much to so many. For Feazell Sr., it serves as a beacon of hope.

“We’ve got to keep hope alive. And this sign let us know that hope is alive,” he said.