Superintendent Caldwell, in his 1880-81 report, advised the Nashville Board of Education that at least 150 Afro-American students had been refused admission to public schools because there was no room for them. Attorney James Carroll Napier, who in later years was Registrar of the U.S. Treasury with Presidents William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson, was a member of the Nashville City Council. This black elected official was instrumental in seeing that funds were appropriated for two more schools to accommodate more black students in the first through the eighth grades.

Miss Helen E. Work in her Masters of Arts degree thesis at Fisk University (1933) recorded that "by 1886 Pearl School, with a capacity of 800 pupils, had an enrollment of 1,043 and a large waiting list." Many black children were denied school privileges because it was the only school in South Nashville. There was a great need for new schools and the opening of Napier School more than ten years later gave educational opportunities to 600 more black children.

Upon completion of the eighth grade, white boys and girls could go the Hume High School, but there was no provision made for the secondary education of black children. The Randals, Easley, Work, Moseley, Hobson, Porter, and other families are said to have approached school officials. They had their children to read, write, spell, compute and demonstrate their proficiencies. On December 1, 1980, Mrs. Edwyna Randals Wilson and Mrs. Helen Randals Dotye confirmed that "some of the families sat in the Superintendent’s office for an entire week." Mr. Luther P. Carmichael wrote that Mr. and Mrs. Sandy Porter’s two sons, Tolbert C. and James Rice Porter had finished grammar school, so Mrs. Porter sought to enroll them at Hume High School. As a result of a combination of efforts and factors, by September, 1886, arrangements were made in the Meigs School building for a class of seven students, with David N. Crossways as teacher of grades nine and ten. A year later, the eleventh grade was added.

"In 1897-98 the high school department at Meigs was transferred to Pearl, and Pearl High School’s prestigious role in the growth and development of secondary education for blacks began," wrote Dr. Leslie L. Carnes in 1974. During ten years at the more central location, the number of "Colored high school graduates" increased from 116 to 326. "In 1907 manual training was extended to the colored schools and equipment was installed at Pearl School … The high school boasted five teachers, a specialized course of study and 211 pupils – the largest enrollment of any Negro high school south of the Ohio River." (Work, 1933) Nevertheless, students and their families complained that classes were overcrowded, facilities were inadequate, and surroundings were unsavory. In 1915 appropriations were made for a new building and a site was selected.

A larger and more adequate Pearl High School was entered in 1917. The three-story building with fifteen classrooms was located on Sixteenth Avenue North and Grant Street, on the lot adjacent to the Knowles School. More teachers were appointed to the faculty, the curriculum was enlarged to include Home Economics and Mechanical Arts, and the twelfth grade was added. Purchases of equipment totaled $3,151.93 and the cost of construction of the new school was $41,971.40. Many educators came from several parts of the Southern United States to see the school and visit its classes.

By the time Pearl High School opened at the foregoing North Nashville site, the names of approximately 600 "Colored high school graduates" were in annual reports made to the Nashville Superintendent of Schools, between 1888 and 1917.

"In the Fall, 1937 Pearl High School moved to Seventeenth Avenue North and Jo Johnston Street, to commodious quarters, which eminent authorities considered the most modern, best constructed and well equipped building for Negroes in the entire South," said Mrs. Louise Watkins Foster in a news release on November 27, 1947, and verified on December 2, 1980.

Details of the rationale, the design and the construction of the new Pearl High School were presented in an article and pictures in the American School and University by Mr. Calvin L. McKissack in 1938. By 1945 a $150,000 vocational wing was completed; in 1948 the J. A. Galloway Stadium was dedicated; and in 1964 a boys’ gymnasium, a larger lunchroom and more classrooms were added. The school principal from 1958 to 1971, Mr. John C. Hull, stated with pride that Pearl Senior High School was one of the first comprehensive high schools in Nashville.

Changes at Pearl High School during the 1970’s have been on the human, rather than the physical, dimension. Desegregation of the Metropolitan Public Schools has yielded a ratio of white-to-black teachers at each school of approximately 80:20 or 75:25. Many white teachers were assigned to Pearl High, while black faculty members were transferred to other locations. In additional personnel changes, new school zones have assigned white high school students to Pearl High. A multi-racial faculty, staff and student body during the 1970’s and the 1980’s has lived and learned together. More than 2,000 white and black youth received their "P. H. Ds." – Pearl High Diplomas.

At the time of this writing, more than 13,000 persons have matriculated in one of the four historical buildings. The vocations, professions, and careers of the graduates are to be found in The Dictionary of Occupational Titles, editions of Who’s Who, and all types of career publications. Dr. Leslie L. Carnes concluded that, "For nearly a century Pearl alumni have served with distinction in education, politics, business, medicine, law, the ministry, and social endeavors."

Carnes, Leslie L. "History of Pearl High," 1974

Foster, Louise Watkins, Dear Old Pearl High, (News Release), November 27, 1945, p.4

McKissack, Calvin L. Nashville’s New High School Plant, American School and University, 10^th Annual Edition, 1938, pp. 60 – 63.

Office of the Board of Education and Annual Reports of the Superintendent of  Schools, 1879-81.