Created in 1958, Ravenswood High School served the East Palo Alto area of San Mateo County California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 until its closure in 1976. During its lifetime, East Palo Alto was the low income area in the shadow of its more affluent neighbors Menlo Park

Menlo Park, California

Menlo Park, California is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south; Atherton, North Fair Oaks, and Redwood City...

, Atherton

Atherton, California

Atherton is an incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, United States. Its population was 6,914 at the 2010 census. In September 2010, Forbes magazine placed Atherton's zip code of 94027 at #2 on its annual list of America's most expensive zip codes, with a median home price of $4,010,200...

 and Palo Alto. The city of Palo Alto, while adjacent and sharing the same zip code is a completely different city in a different county (Santa Clara County). Ravenswood was part of the Sequoia Union High School District

Sequoia Union High School District

The Sequoia Union High School District is a public school district in the San Francisco Bay Area, primarily serving the communities of Atherton, Belmont, East Palo Alto, Ladera, San Carlos, Menlo Park, Portola Valley, Redwood City, and Woodside....

 which serves the southern San Mateo County cities of Belmont

Belmont, California

Belmont is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States. It is in the San Francisco Bay Area, located half-way down the San Francisco Peninsula between San Mateo and San Carlos. It was originally part of the Rancho de las Pulgas, for which one of its main roads, the Alameda de las Pulgas,...

, Redwood City, San Carlos

San Carlos, California

San Carlos is a city in San Mateo County, California, USA on the San Francisco Peninsula, about halfway between San Francisco and San Jose. It is an affluent small residential suburb located between Belmont to the north and Redwood City to the south. San Carlos' ZIP code is 94070, and it is within...

, and Woodside

Woodside, California

Woodside is a small incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, United States, on the San Francisco Peninsula. It uses a council-manager system of government. The U.S. Census estimated the population of the town to be 5,287 in 2010....

.

During the early 1960s, the enrollment in the school increased from initially less than 800 to over 1,200 students. With white flight

White flight

White flight has been a term that originated in the United States, starting in the mid-20th century, and applied to the large-scale migration of whites of various European ancestries from racially mixed urban regions to more racially homogeneous suburban or exurban regions. It was first seen as...

, 60 percent of the student population was African American. The next decade continued this trend. Almost a decade after Brown v. Board of Education

Brown v. Board of Education

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 , was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. The decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896 which...

 decision, the conditions at the school drew the attention of the Congress of Racial Equality

Congress of Racial Equality

The Congress of Racial Equality or CORE was a U.S. civil rights organization that originally played a pivotal role for African-Americans in the Civil Rights Movement...

 (CORE) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to...

 (NAACP)http://ravenswood.sequoiaalumni.net/about_rhs.htm. In the early 1970s, the school board instituted a district wide bussing program to increase the diversity of all its high schools. This was successful for a few years, but by the mid-70's volunteer students wishing to attend Ravenswood became harder to find. Enrollment declined and facing the financial burden of keeping the school alive, Ravenswood was closed in 1976. The location was demolished in 1995 to make room for the Gateway 101 Shopping Center.http://sequoiaalumni.net/schools/ravenswood/rwhs_story.html

This school is on the List of California Schools Closed in the 1970's and 1980's