Ullman Building
Samuel Ullman High School was a public high school for African American students which was established in 1937 on 7th Avenue South at 12th Street in the building formerly housing the Samuel Ullman School.
The Ullman School, a grammar school serving white students, opened in 1901 and was named for Samuel Ullman, a long-serving member of the Birmingham Board of Education. Fittingly for its later use, Ullman's contributions on the board were largely on behalf of the system's black students. The first principal was Mary N. Dabney. Eleven classrooms were added to the original 4-room unit in 1909.
The high school was greatly enlarged with a new three-story classroom wing in 1957. In 1971 the building was sold to the University of Alabama at Birmingham where it currently houses the UAB School of Social and Behavioral Sciences.
Notable faculty members at Ullman included Birmingham Civil Rights Institute founder Odessa Woolfolk and Reverend John Wesley Rice, father of Condoleezza Rice, who was the school's guidance counselor. Jazz musician Wilson Driver organized the first Ullman High School Band.
Notable alumni
- Taylor Weldon Green, educator
- Freeman Hrabowski, President of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County
- Larry Naves, Chief Judge for the Denver, Colorado municipal courts
- Rickey Powell, Broadway and jazz vocalist
- Condoleezza Rice, United States Secretary of State
- Nathan Hale Turner, Jr, Birmingham News copy editor and author
- Cynthia Wesley, victim of the bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church
- Mary Esterlyn White, chemist
References
- Cruikshank, George M. (1920) History of Birmingham and Its Environs (2 vol.) Chicago: Lewis Publishing.