School's history lives on in hall name

The auditorium at Blake High is renamed for a school that represented educational opportunity for blacks.

Dozens of alumni stood proudly Saturday at Blake High School, singing the alma mater of their beloved but long-gone Don Thompson Vocational School.

Our motto - the best in the land,

"We can because we think we can,"

Don Thompson, Don Thompson,

We will always love you.

For the Thompson alumni, Saturday's ceremony marked a special occasion. After years of lobbying, they finally succeeded in getting Blake's auditorium named after their school: the Don Thompson Performing Arts Theater.

"We want (the school) to live on," said Pauline Grant, a 1948 Thompson graduate. "We don't want it to die, because that was the roots of the tree that's growing now."

The renaming ceremony helped link the past with the present for Don Thompson Vocational School, which became Howard W. Blake High School when it moved in 1956. The old Blake closed in the early 1970s, but reopened at its current location at 1701 North Blvd. in 1997.

"This is a very glorious and historic moment," said Blake principal Lewis Brinson. "It's important that we take the history that was shared here and pass it along to the students that are here."

Thompson and Blake alumni from the 1940s to the 1970s mingled with current Blake High students, sharing their memories of important teachers and championship athletic teams.

Thompson himself is a mysterious figure. For years, little was known about him, and none of his family still lives in the Tampa Bay area.

Thompson alumni always saw their school's namesake as a hero. Only two other all-black high schools existed in the county, and Thompson Vocational, which opened in 1945, offered African-Americans the chance to learn trade skills, obtain a diploma and attend all-black colleges.

The truth behind the school, though, is more complex. Thompson was once in charge of all Hillsborough County vocational educational, but he didn't found Thompson Vocational School. The facility, situated downtown on Morgan Street, was a trade school for black veterans. Only after Thompson died, in 1942, was the school formally declared an educational institution and named in his honor.

For the alumni in attendance Saturday, though, the ceremony was less about the man than it was about the school.

"The name for the school came from the man, but it's the school we want to live on," said Grant, a longtime advocate for a Thompson namesake.

Flora Crawford Dawson said what's important is what the name symbolizes.

"He left no history, yet his name became bigger than life in the bigger community," said Dawson, a 1954 Thompson graduate. "Our understanding may never be clear about the man Don Thompson. But our understanding about the school Don Thompson is very good."

Hillsborough school superintendent Earl Lennard was scheduled to speak, but Myrna Robinson, an area director in charge of the school, came instead. The crowd of about 100 also was less than hoped for, but Grant was not discouraged.

"Even if we'd had the building full, we couldn't have done any more than what we did today, and have the kind of sentiments that were said today," she said.

"I think it was beautiful."

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