East High merger with Maxine Smith STEAM meets resistance
East High’s building opened in 1948, designed to house about 2,000 students. At the time, it was an all-white student body. In 2021, the school had a population of 545 students, with about 73% of those students being Black and about 30% of students classified as economically disadvantaged. (Daily Memphian file)
The latest effort to increase enrollment at East High School is a merger with Maxine Smith STEAM Academy, but some have called what’s happened at East “educational redlining.”
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Daja E. Henry
Daja E. Henry is originally from New Orleans, Louisiana. She is a graduate of Howard University and the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University and currently is a general assignment reporter.
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