A committee has recommended that the Atlanta school relocating to the historic building where Martin Luther King Jr. attended class be named the David T. Howard Middle School.

The change won't be a huge shift for the old building, which was previously the David T. Howard High School.

Before it became a high school, King attended third through sixth grade there in 1936 to 1940.

The sprawling brick building in the Old Fourth Ward was where some of Atlanta Public Schools most famous alumni attended high school, including former Mayor Maynard Jackson and basketball star Walt “Clyde” Frazier.

The high school closed in the 1970s.

APS is now in the middle of a $52 million renovation and expansion of the building. It will reopen next fall as a middle school, housing students who currently attend Inman Middle School.

Howard, a former slave who founded the city's first black-owned bank, donated the property where the school is located. APS already has a school named Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School.

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Superintendent Bryan Johnson listens to a speaker during an Atlanta School Board meeting in Atlanta on Wednesday, November 5, 2025. APS held its first vote on school consolidation plans. (Abbey Cutrer / AJC)

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