"Dunbar was without question a wonderful school, academically, culturally, in leadership and in excellence," Lightbourne said. Her dissertation, "Shining through the Clouds: An Historical Case Study of Dunbar, a Segregated School in Tucson, Arizona," explores the history of the now-closed Dunbar, 300 W. Second St., and the achievements of its students.
The 200-plus page dissertation is available at the UA library and from the Dunbar Coalition (www.thedunbarproject.com), a group working to restore the Dunbar building and make it a museum and cultural center.
Many, probably most, of the students who attended Dunbar during segregation, 1918 to 1951, were poor. They attended a school with furniture deemed worn-out from years of use by other students, yet good enough for Dunbar students.
Their textbooks also were discards from other schools.
"Yet the poverty did not factor into performance," Lightbourne said. Instead, school personnel, headed for many years by Principal Morgan Maxwell Sr., fostered an intense interest in student achievement.
Maxwell, who moved from Topeka, Kan., to become Dunbar principal in 1940, made sure learning was not second-rate, though facilities were, Lightbourne said.
"Morgan Maxwell Sr. was an impassioned supporter of academic pursuits," she wrote in the dissertation. "His cultural background was a determinant in his philosophical approach to education.
"His father was born a slave," she wrote. But Morgan Maxwell Sr. was born free, and "it is believed that he thought that the horizon of opportunity was open to him to make inroads into mainstream society.
"He did," she noted.
His cultural heritage may have "catapulted him toward pursuing success," Lightbourne said. "Maxwell was a visionary leader who saw beyond the wall of segregation. His visionary approach to leadership led him to expect the best from his followers."
"But what else drove these kids?" Lightbourne wondered.
She concluded in her research that the school also had a deep commitment from the community.
"Home and school and church leaders worked together," she said. Also, the school had a corps of excellent teachers.
Blacks were severely limited in career options, so many of the best and brightest became educators, she said. Almost universally, they were hired only in schools serving African-American children.
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