This project was created with 11th and 12th grade photography students at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts.

Anderson 107: Legacy

Long before Douglas Anderson was DA, School of the Arts, home of the Puffins, it was a small and beloved community of students, teachers and staff that felt more like family. It was one of the only schools available for Jacksonville’s African American community. We were curious what our school was like in the early days—what was the experience of students who attended Douglas Anderson when it was an all-Black school?

To learn more, we invited graduates from the 1950s and 1960s to be part of a documentary project exploring the personality of Anderson 107, as they called their school. Photography students were paired with an alumnus. Students learned studio lighting and then spent several hours photographing and interviewing their alumni. With Motown, jazz, and other 1960s music playing, students asked questions and photographed the resulting expressiveness of the alumni. Many alumni arrived with wagons full of yearbooks, athletic letters, photographs and other memorabilia from high school. The images and interviews you see in this exhibition are the result of this collaboration.

As a class, we were moved by how close knit the alumni remain, even today. They spoke of their alma mater as if it were “home” and the teachers, staff and fellow students as “family.” Many talked about the excellent education they received here, and the high expectations of every single teacher, despite the limited resources that all black schools experienced during segregation. They spoke of the changes they see in our world today—ways we’ve matured as a society and ways we’ve fallen behind. It was an incredible experience for these students to have the opportunity to sit in their high school and learn firsthand about the experiences of those who came before them.

I interviewed Coach Nathanial Washington one month before he died as part of my Community Foundation Artist Venture Grant project featuring interviews of the graduates of the original Stanton High School, or Old Stanton. After three delightful hours, I still felt like I hadn’t gotten enough of his stories. He was a soft spoken man who loved loved coaching football, but loved inspiring teenagers even more. Every single alumni we interviewed spoke of the impact Coach had on their lives.

I am so glad he agreed to spend time with me telling his story. At the end of our interview, I asked him if I could photograph him. This is the last photograph taken of Coach Nathanial Washington, the only coach of the Anderson 107 Fiery Dragons

Listen to Coach explaining why he always chose the smallest players on his teams to be the leader in this audio clip:

The black and white photograph of Coach Washington—taken by Ingrid Damiani
The color portraits of the alumni were taken by Douglas Anderson School of the Art juniors and seniors.

I am a college graduate, largely because of the efforts, commitment and concern of Coach Washington. One day in November 1967,a after football season, I passed by Coach’s office. He asked me, ‘Garry, where are you going to college after graduation?’ I don’t know what my answer was, but he asked me if I would like to attend Morgan State? I said, “YES! with great enthusiasm. Coach called me in and telephoned Coach Banks at Morgan State. After a ten-minute call, Coach informed me that I would be attending Morgan State. Just on his word, I was given a scholarship. As the son of a single-parent household, I was more than elated. “

—Garry Merritt

Patricia Lawson was the granddaughter of Douglas Anderson. She is the first alumni featured below. As part of my Art Ventures Grant from the Community Foundation of Northeast Florida, I interviewed her about living and teaching through desegregation which you can listen to in the audio files below.