The Pensacola High School Class of 1921 began their final academic trek on Monday, September 13, 1920 still in their old building but with a new principal. Professor John Hunter Workman (1875-1950), formerly a high school principal in Ocala and Miami, Florida arrived that summer to take up the reins of scholastic power. Workman's arrival in Pensacola was attributed to an incident involving a young sophomore student at Miami High School where Workman was the principal. In May 1920, the young man was suspended by the Assistant Principal W. R. Thomas for 24-hours for creating a disturbance in the study hall, all in Workman's absence. But Workman supported his assistant's decision and did not think it necessary to notify the boy's parents since it was such a short suspension. However, this action incurred the displeasure of the boy's grandfather who so happened to be one of the school district's trustees. Because of this, the trustee made it known that Workman would not be reappointed to his position. Though several meetings were held by the trustees no action was ever taken against Workman. However, when a job offer was received from Pensacola, Workman accepted even though petitions had already been filed in Miami begging him to stay.
But the new principal's reputation was that of a strict disciplinarian and a "no-nonsense" educator that went by the rules! For the next 25-years his personality would dominate the atmosphere of Pensacola High School. From the time he arrived in 1920 until he retired in 1945 he was both respected and feared by students and teachers alike, which earned him the nickname of "ding-a ling" by the students of the 1940's. He expected everyone to meet his high standards that he set even for himself. One of his rules was that students were to walk in single file along the wall, without talking, whenever moving from one class to another. He also set strict standards for moral conduct including sending young ladies home if their dresses were too low cut in the back. He even suspended one young boy for looking at some “girlie” pictures. The boy’s mother complained that Workman was nothing but a prude, but he retorted that unless her son could behave like a gentleman, he was unwelcome amongst the female teachers and students in the hallowed halls of the school.
And when it came to his female teachers he enforced the same values of modesty and decorum that he expected of the young men. Although unacceptable by today's standards during the 1920's he hired almost exclusively single, Phi Beta Kappa women who were White Anglo-Saxon Protestants. He avoided hiring Jewish teachers, not because of their religion but because his academic schedule conflicted with their religious holidays. Married teachers were never hired as a general rule until the 1930’s when the school started expanding rapidly and the number of teachers reached forty-two during the 1941-42 school year. Also, teacher’s salaries from 1925 to 1940 ranged on the average from $1,000 to $1,500 per year. The maximum contract for a teacher at Pensacola High School in 1925 was $160.00 per month for a nine-month contract. By 1936, the maximum had risen to only $165.00 per month. Workman would finally retire in 1945 and passed away on March 18, 1950 followed by his burial in Bayview Cemetery.
In the meantime, the yearbook committee placed a drawing in the front of their publication of a young lady in the clothing style of 1917. This was the year that the Class of 1921 began their high school career. They began as naïve freshman, but history would not allow them to stay naïve for very long. Europe had been at war with Germany since 1914 and now America had been pulled into the fighting on April 6, 1917. Many of the student's family members were called up for service, some never to return. Shortly thereafter, the world-wide pandemic of the Spanish Influenza struck filling many of our graveyards locally and across the world. By the end of the war in 1918, the role of the American woman had changed drastically. Having left their homes in large numbers, the ladies had flocked to the factories to produce the war materials so badly needed overseas. Customs began to change. The drawing of the young lady was the yearbook committee's attempt to show the changes they had themselves endured. Each academic year was marked on the girls' dress as the hemline grew higher and higher. By the time they graduated in 1921, the "roaring 20's" flapper girls were out in full force and the hemline had grown to a "risqué" height!
Pensacola News Journal 12-3-1932
Pensacola News Journal 3-20-1950
Miami News 6-10-1920
Pensacola News Journal 4-7-1917
Greenville, TN Daily Sun 10-4-1918
The rising of the hemline according
to their academic year 1917-1921
"Flapper Girls" of the Roaring 20's
Pensacola News Journal 1-1-1922. The new Pensacola High
School dedication on Monday 1-2-1922
Pensacola News Journal 1-3-1922. Although the new high school building came too late for the Class of 1921, they felt a part of it since it was begun during their academic reign!
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