Macon African American High Schools, 1949-1970

Ballard-Hudson High School 1949-1970

Ballard Hudson Senior High School opened in 1949.  The new campus was designed by female architect Ellamae Ellis League, costing 2.5 million dollars. “The school offered three courses of study: academic, vocational, and commercial. Vocational students could study brick masonry, carpentry, auto mechanics, commercial laundry, agriculture, and home economics. Commercial students learned office skills such as typing, shorthand and bookeeping. The school had modern, well-equipped science laboratories and classrooms, and the auditorium seated 2,000. Ballard-Hudson Senior High School open with 55 teachers and 1400 students.” (Brown, page 135)

Peter G. Appling High School 1958-1970

In 1958, Peter G. Appling High School opened to alleviate overcrowding at Ballard-Hudson Senior High School. African American students living on the east side of the river were sent to there. The school was named for the last principal of Hudson High School, Peter G. Appling who died in 1948.

Integration

By 1971, Bibb County had integrated  the junior and senior high schools in Bibb County were combined into complexes, with Ballad-Hudson junior and senior high schools going into the Southwest High School Complex, and Peter G. Appling junior and senior high schools into the Northeast High School Complex.  At one point in the 1960s, the board looked into adding a third African American high school, but the integration of schools made it no longer necessary. The students who would have attended the third high school were sent to the Central High School Complex. The buidling names were retained within the complex system.