John LeFlore

School
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John L. LeFlore Magnet High School of Advanced Communication and Fine Performing Arts

Striving for Excellence in Education
Address
700 Donald St. 36617 Toulminville
Mobile, Alabama, United States


Information
School type Public Magnet
Established 1968
School district Mobile County Public School System #4
Principal Mr. Thomas M. Reed
Grades 9–12
Campus Suburban
Color(s) Orange and Kelly Green
Mascot Rattlesnake
Team name Rattlers
Website http://leflore.mcs.schoolinsites.com
John L. LeFlore Magnet High School of Advanced Communication and Fine Performing Arts, also known as LeFlore Magnet High School, is a historic public magnet preparatory academy located in Toulminville, Mobile, Alabama, United States. LeFlore offers advanced communication, academic, fine and performing art, and career technical programs. John L. LeFlore is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

Founded in 1968, John L. LeFlore Magnet High School of Advanced Communication and Fine Performing Arts is an astute, prestigious, secondary school in Alabama. From 1968 through 1980, the school was known as Toulminville High School, offering secondary education to upper-middle class students within the Toulminville suburb. In 1981 the school was renamed John L. LeFlore High School in honor of Mr. John L. LeFlore, a Mobile NAACP leader who became the first African-American elected to the legislature in Mobile County. The renaming of the school brought about a move into an authentic, state of the art building with the amenities that would equip the institution for the upcoming magnet program. It wasn't until the mid 1980's that the learning institution gained a magnet program thus changing the name to John L. LeFlore Magnet High School of Advanced Communication and Fine Performing Arts. Upon garnering the magnet title, LeFlore received students throughout the county of Mobile, AL. Students enrolled in LeFlore's Magnet Program come as far as Deer Park, AL to Grand Bay, AL. With a student-faculty ratio of 17 to 1, LeFlore's teachers are able to work more closely with students, encourage more ambition, and challenge students to better meet their academic success. Also, preparatory academies are largely independent of state and local control for these controls are viewed by prep school proponents as an unacceptable burden on education, schooling, and eventual university matriculation.


[edit] Curriculum and Instruction
John L. LeFlore Magnet High School is a secondary school divided into two schools within one; comprehensive and magnet. The comprehensive school is distinguished by the students who are zoned(residing within Toulminville) for LeFlore High School. The magnet school is distinguished by students who are not necessarily zoned for LeFlore High School, but enter into the magnet program upon selected academic and artistic criteria from all middle schools throughout Mobile County. Being structured as two schools has proven to be highly beneficial to LeFlore High School and its students. This provides a higher opportunity for more students to become recognized academically through the valedictorian and salutatorian titles which ensures that each graduating class will have at least four academic superlatives. With such a broad curriculum, having two schools to award those students who may only be enrolled in comprehensive and/or honors courses and have maintained a 4.0 grade point average with those students who may only be enrolled in honors and/or advanced placement courses and have also maintained a 4.0 grade point average makes certain that no child is overlooked for her/his academic achievements. Since incorporating this educational method, LeFlore has had up to ten representatives for the highest academic honors for one graduating class alone. With this number growing, LeFlore proves that two schools are better than one.

John L. LeFlore offers a broad curriculum including traditional high school academic subjects, honors academic courses, advanced placement academic courses, elective courses and advanced communication and fine performing art classes. All students attending John L. LeFlore take a basic academic core including English, Foreign Language, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies courses. Students may elect to take focus in areas including: Aerospace Science, Broadcasting, Business Marketing, Instrumental Performance, Photography, Pre-Medicine, Theatre, and a host of other eclectic areas. LeFlore Magnet High School awards four diploma endorsements indicating advanced study, offers college-level advanced placement courses, and access to courses at local colleges.

Contents [hide]
1 Curriculum and Instruction
2 History
2.1 Where is LeFlore High School?
2.2 Who is John L. LeFlore?
2.3 From Toulminville to John L. LeFlore
3 LeFlore Magnet High School
3.1 A School of Choice
3.2 Campus
3.3 Extracurricular Organizations
3.3.1 Azalea Trail Maids
3.3.2 Imperial Knights Service Club
3.3.3 Jack and Jill LeBeautillion Militaire Program
3.3.4 Kappa League
3.3.5 Kimberly-Clark Hi-Q
3.3.6 Mighty Marching Rattler Band
3.3.6.1 Strikettes Dance Team
3.3.7 Moving Images Dance Company
3.3.8 Television Productions
3.4 Ratthletics
3.4.1 State Championships
3.5 Traditions
3.5.1 Alma Mater
3.5.2 Cheers
3.5.2.1 I'm So Glad!
3.5.2.2 Is The Gang All Here?
3.5.2.3 RATTLERFIED!!!
3.5.3 School Publications
4 Measures of Success
4.1 Test Scores
5 References
6 External links


LeFlore, in conjunction with the Alabama YMCA Youth Judicial Program, has incorporated a unique study of the judiciary system into its curriculum. The program was initiated when the Mobile Bar Association chose to sponsor LeFlore students in the Alabama Youth Judicial Competition held in Montgomery, Alabama. The competition, held November 2007, was a three day mock trial for high school students that followed a step by step demonstration of an actual law case. The students were able to re-enact the lawsuit which presided in a courtroom while working with lawyers as coaches from the Bar Association. The students, led by Toulminville High School alumni Mrs. Bonita English of LeFlore Magnet High School, had taken several months to learn each procedure and role of the judiciary system from judge, jury, prosecuting and defense attorneys to witnesses. This event has been successful in encouraging students' interests in pursuing law careers and the launch of LeFlore High School's Pre-Law Program.

LeFlore's Drafting & Engineering Program[1] is certified and licensed through the America Design Drafting Association(ADDA) and is directly articulated with The Art Institutes, Bishop State Community College, and Jefferson Davis Community College. This program is beneficial to students as one high school and three college credits. Students completing the drafting courses of LeFlore's Drafting Program which include: Advanced Mechanical Design, Architectural Design I & II, Engineering Drafting, Intermediate Mechanical Design, Intro to Draft Design, Intro to Mechanical Design, or Mechanical Drawing are able to enter directly into these collegiate programs free of the entrance exam. The future of LeFlore's Drafting Program is to become articulated with various four-year institutions such as Auburn University and Tuskegee University.

Classes at John L. LeFlore Magnet High School are arranged in a combination block/alternative day schedule in which four 96-minute classes are offered each day. Some classes alternate every other day for one semester, while others alternate every other day for the whole year.[2]


[edit] History

[edit] Where is LeFlore High School?

Toulminville, Alabama (upper left), during the American Civil War.Toulminville is a district in Mobile, Alabama that began as a small settlement on the property of Theophilus Toulmin, who served as sheriff of Mobile County in the 1830s. During the American Civil War, Toulminville was mapped along the Mobile and Ohio Railroad as a significant settlement northwest of Mobile. Toulminville remained a largely rural settlement until after the Civil War. Growth within the city of Mobile caused an overflow into Toulminville, which slowly took on the character of a suburb. Part of Toulminville was annexed into the city of Mobile in the 1920s and the whole of Toulminville in 1945. During World War II, Toulminville had become an upper-middle class suburb with many affluent neighborhoods built along Stanton and Summerville Streets. By the 1960s issues caused by desegregation and an upsurge of crime on Mobile's northside caused the district which was majority white to become nearly 80% black by 1975. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Toulminville had a serious crime problem; however, that trend has been tremendously reversed due to a concentrated effort by the Mobile Police Department, LeFlore Task Force, community leaders[3] and residents to restore the standard and values of the community.

Toulminville is the birthplace of Major General William Crawford Gorgas who takes on the status of Toulminville Community Hero, as several streets and an elementary school are named in his honor.


Hank AaronToulminville is the neighborhood in which baseball legend Hank Aaron lived during his adolescent years, the bedrock of the district which elected John L. LeFlore, a Mobile NAACP leader, who became the first African-American elected to the legislature in Mobile County, and where LeFlore High School was established.


Toulminville High SchoolJohn L. LeFlore Magnet High School began as Toulminville High School which opened in 1968 as a public frontier school amid issues caused by desegregation and crime. Toulminville High School offered a complete secondary education to students living within the suburb; including modern languages, literature, mathematics, military science and musical arts at a high academic level. Along with being a great school academically, Toulminville gained popularity as a well-groomed, all-around high school. Principal Mr. Charles T. Rhodes, the Roundball Rattlers led by Coach J.D. Shellwood, the Mighty Marching Rattler Band directed by Mr. Marion Ward and the Football Squad led by athletic director and Coach Mr. William Jessie[4] were prominent forces within Toulminville High School and the Toulminville Community. Toulminville graduated its final class in 1980 before being renamed John L. LeFlore High School. Toulminville High School's yearbook is the TOUHIRA, Toulminville High Rattler.


[edit] Who is John L. LeFlore?

John L. LeFloreJohn L. LeFlore's contributions to Mobile becoming a more prominent city in the south vary educationally, financially, personally, racially and socially. Mr. LeFlore served in leadership positions in many organizations ranging from the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters to the Mobile Committee for the Support of Public Education. Born May 17, 1903 in Mobile, Alabama to Dock and Clara LeFlore, John L. LeFlore's career as a community leader and a civil rights activist spanned fifty years. He was the most significant figure in the struggle for black equality in Mobile, throughout the southern part of Alabama and Mississippi, and along the Florida Gulf Coast. The John L. LeFlore Papers tell important stories about the civil rights movement in the urban south, document the development and early work of the NAACP in Mobile and provide insight into his life and aspirations. In December 1925, after graduating Owen Academy in 1920 and marrying Teah Beck in 1922, LeFlore began corresponding with the national office about the reorganization of the Mobile Branch of the NAACP that was organized in 1919 but became inactive in the early 1920s. By March 1926, Mr. LeFlore had mobilized enough people to apply for a new charter. LeFlore served as executive secretary for the branch from its inception to 1956. He also served as chairman of the organization's Regional Conference of Southern Branches from 1936 to 1945, a critical period in its development, and was vice-president of the Alabama Conference from 1945 to 1956. In 1956, when the NAACP was outlawed in Alabama, LeFlore and others in Mobile shifted their civil rights work to the Non-Partisan Voters League, where LeFlore served as director of case work from 1959 to 1975. LeFlore remained with the league even after the ban was lifted in 1964 and the Mobile branch of the NAACP was reorganized. The NAACP correspondence in the LeFlore Papers[5] do not begin until 1930, but information about the early years of the Mobile Branch and Regionals Conference may be found in the NAACP papers at the Library of Congress.


John L. LeFlore and the Freedom Riders.LeFlore participated in many organizations and served on various state committees. In addition to civil rights, these groups represent public work in areas such as prison reform, health and family planning, veterans' rights, labor unions, public education and general charity. In addition, he was a radio commentator for a public service program, Today's World, for many years. He and Foley, of Spring Hill College, organized a committee for the support of public education in 1973. This committee received federal funds to mount an intensive ad campaign against racial disturbances in public schools. LeFlore was a news correspondent for the Chicago Defender, the Pittsburgh Courier and the Associated Negro Press and covered many of the civil rights violations that occurred in the south. The Chicago Defender awarded LeFlore a citation for covering the lynching of four black people in Monroe, Georgia in 1946. LeFlore later became associate editor of the Mobile Beacon and wrote many editorials and features for this weekly newspaper