John W. Ligon Middle School

John W. Ligon GT Magnet Middle School
Entrance to Ligon's atrium
Address
706 East Lenoir Street Raleigh, North Carolina United States
Information
School type	Public (Magnet)
Founded	1953
Focus	Arts Academia Multiculturalism
Principal	Gretta Dula
Number of students	~1200
Education system	Wake County Public School System
Schedule type	Eight period
Hours in school day	7:35am - 2:20pm
Yearbook	The Echo
Feeder to	William G. Enloe High School
Assistant principals	Jennifer Zezza Curtis Brower Ronald Sharpe
Website	www.wcpss.net/ligonms

John W. Ligon GT Magnet Middle School, formerly John W. Ligon Junior-Senior High School, is a public magnet middle school in the Wake County Public School System located in the Chavis Heights neighborhood of Raleigh, North Carolina. It was historically an all black high school in Raleigh until it was integrated in 1971.

John W. Ligon High School was founded in 1953, replacing Washington Graded and High School as the only all black secondary education institution in Raleigh, North Carolina. The overall building costs amounted to $1 million, making it the largest school construction project in the state at the time. It was named after John William Ligon, an educator, local pastor and interim principal at Washington. The school's books were supplied secondhand from its white counterpart, Needham B. Broughton High School. Ligon was seen as model for black education throughout the state, attracting a large number of students and an educated teaching staff from the local black colleges. By the late 1960s it possessed a higher percentage of teachers with graduate degrees than any of Raleigh's three white schools.

Ligon served as the city's only black high school until 1971, when it was desegregated and subsequently converted into a junior high school. In the late 1970s, officials considered closing the school, but this was met with opposition from alumni and Ligon continued to operate. In 1982, Ligon was formally consolidated into the new Wake County Public School System and became involved in the Magnet Program. The Crosby-Garfield school in Raleigh merged into Ligon at the same time. Between 1994 and 1995, computers and laserdisc players were installed in many of the school's classrooms. 360 students were educated on the use of ClarisWorks, HyperStudio, and MacGlobe software. Teachers were trained in the areas of data management, email, and multimedia. In recent years, the school has undergone major renovations and expansions, including the construction of new hallways, a baseball field, and more classrooms.