The Dunbar School Alumni Association, Inc.
The Dunbar School Alumni Association, Inc. will be hosting their 11th Dunbar School reunion July 21-23, 2023 at the Homewood Suites in Salina, Kansas.
This year’s reunion theme will be, “Dunbar School: Evoke the Legacy – Let It Shine”. The two-day reunion includes a memorial service for deceased Dunbar School alumni and an evening banquet.
The keynote speaker for the Saturday evening banquet will be Dr. Karina Yager, Assistant Professor in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University, Long Island, New York. Dr. Yager is the granddaughter of the alumni association’s oldest alumnus, Dr. Virginia Hill Bell.
The DSAA is planning activities for all age groups during their Friday-Sunday reunion. The association celebrated the 100th anniversary of Dunbar School this past November. Most recently, Dunbar School was featured in the latest issue of the Kansas Magazine, which is available on-line and at over 300 retail stores and newsstands.
The article on Dunbar School was written by former Salinan and freelance writer, Melinda Briscoe. More information about the 11th Dunbar School Reunion will be available on the Dunbar Alumni Association’s web site: www.dunbarschoolsalina.com.
About Dunbar School
Paul Lawrence Dunbar School was established in 1922 by the Salina Board of Education as a modern facility which served black children from kindergarten through grade eight. All Salina schools had previously been intergraded. Under General Statues of Kansas 1879 and Kansas Laws 1919 to 1920, cities of first class, with populations of 15,000 were authorized to maintain separate schools for the education of white and black elemen• tary school children. A special election on January 25, 1921 provided school bonds for the site and construction of the school.
Named for the African-American poet and author Paul Lawrence Dunbar, the school opened with six black teachers and a principal. High schools in Salina remained integrated as completion of Dunbar marked the advent of segregation at early education levels.
Recognized for creative musical events, Dunbar students and faculty inspired and support. ed cultural development in the community. Robert C. Caldwell, former Dunbar teacher and principal later served three terms as Salina's first black mayor and was subsequently elected to the state legislature.
In 1951, the Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka case challenged the "separate but equal system" in Kansas elementary schools. In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court found separate schools violated the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. Soon after, Dunbar along with similar schools in Kansas and in twenty other states, became integrated. The school closed in 1955 because of declining enrollment. The St. Francis Academy purchased the building in 1958.
On September 25, 1998, at the request of the Dunbar School Alumni Association, Inc. the city of Salina declared Dunbar School a Heritage Conservation Landmark. With fond memories a marker was erected at the site, 509 E. Elm, and dedicated on June 16, 2000 by former students an faculty. Funding for the marker was provide by the Dunbar School Alumni, the community, and friends. The park was constructed by the City of Salina in appreciation of a unique cultural resource.
Dr. Karina Yager
Yager is a transdisciplinary scientist who has been working for over two decades in the Andes of South America. She grew up in Fort Collins, Colorado and acquired her Bachelors of Arts in Anthropology in 1998 from Colorado State University. She completed her Masters in Archaeology at Columbia University in New York, followed by her Doctoral research in Cultural Anthropology & Ecology at Yale University.
Following her Doctoral studies, Dr. Yager completed her post-Doctoral research at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. She worked for NASA for nine years on climate change research. Her research areas focused on deciphering climate and societal drivers of land-cover land-use change in the Andes of South America.
Dr. Yager’s research combines remote sensing analysis with alpine studies and ethnographic fieldwork with Andean pastoralist. She is now an Assistant Professor in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University, Long Island, New York. Her research specialties include climate change,glacier change, satellite images, mountain societies, and alpine ecosystems. She teaches courses on Global Environmental Change and the Age of the Anthropocene.
Dr. Yager is the granddaughter of the oldest Dunbar School alumni, Dr. Virginia Hill Ricard, from whom she learned the value of education and legacy of Dunbar School.