Listing all the people who have brought fame and honor to Austin East Magnet High School in ways big and small is an impossible task, and rightly so: As the school prepares to celebrate 145 years of serving the East Knoxville community, it has produced generations of alumni who have led local government, chronicled history, written award-winning books and achieved athletic stature.
Here is a list of notable Austin East alumni who have excelled in their chosen fields in and around Knoxville, as well as a timeline of an institution with a history that stretches back to several other schools.
Robert Booker
Booker was a Knoxville civil rights figure and historian who played a key role in integrating the historic Tennessee Theatre in 1963 while attending the University of Knoxville. He died Feb. 22 at age 88. He also served on the City Council and was the city’s first black member of the Tennessee State Assembly.
Bianca Belair
Belair, a WWE superstar, was a state champion track and field athlete at Austin East Magnet High School in Knoxville before competing at the University of South Carolina and Texas A&M University. Her life is currently the focus of a new reality show airing on Hulu with her husband Montez Ford.
Daniel Brown
Brown is Knoxville’s first black mayor and was elected from January 10 to December 17, 2011 to serve the remainder of the term handed down by former Mayor Bill Haslam, who resigned to become Governor of Tennessee. Brown is also a Vietnam War veteran.
Beauford and Joseph Delaney
The Delaney brothers’ artistic contributions to the world are hard to overstate. They emerged on the scene during the Harlem Renaissance, a period of revival in black art in the 1930s. A museum dedicated to them, the Delaney Museum, is planned for Dandridge Street.
Joe Fishback
Fishback is a former National Football League player who played for the Atlanta Falcons and Dallas Cowboys. He was a star athlete at Carson-Newman University and was inducted into the Greater Knoxville Sports Hall of Fame in 2016.
Nikki Giovanni
Giovanni is a multiple NAACP Image Award and American Book Award winner, the recipient of more than two dozen honorary degrees, and a New York Times bestselling author. Her work ranges from poetry collections to essays to many children’s books, including the Rosa Parks biography “Rosa.”
Diane Jordan
Jordan was the first Black woman elected to the Knox County Commission, serving in that position from 1994 to 2007.
‘It truly is a second home’: Austin East leaders discuss Road Runner’s meaning
Dwight Lewis
Dwight Lewis was a reporter, editor and columnist for The Tennessean for 40 years, interviewing such notable people as civil rights hero U.S. Congressman John Lewis and Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassin, James Earl Ray.
Laurie and Reggie McKenzie
Reilly McKenzie is a former Washington Commanders player who played linebacker and offensive line during his time at the University of Tennessee, then as a linebacker and center.
Reggie McKenzie is a prominent football figure both as a player and front office executive. He played linebacker for the University of Tennessee and the Los Angeles Raiders, won a Super Bowl as the Green Bay Packers’ Director of Football Operations, served as the Raiders’ General Manager, and is currently a senior personnel executive with the Miami Dolphins.
Sam McKenzie
He is a Democrat and a state representative from Knoxville. He took office in January 2021. He worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for over 30 years and served as a Knox County commissioner for eight years. Reggie and Sam McKenzie are brothers.
Leroy Thompson
Thompson was president and CEO of BDT Development & Management Co. The former NFL player also served as executive director of Wesley House Community Center, which serves the Beaumont, Lonsdale and Mechanicsville areas.
Carl Trubusch
He coached college football for 42 years. He was the only white football player in Austin East High School’s first graduating class. He played football at Carson-Newman High School from 1971 to 1973 and baseball in 1973, and was named an NAIA All-American in both sports.
Elston Turner
He was part of the team that led the Roadrunners to their first AAA state basketball championship in 1977 under legendary coach Clifford Ross, and has hosted youth summer basketball camps for many years at his alma mater, A.E. He was selected 43rd overall by the Dallas Mavericks in the second round of the 1981 NBA Draft.
History of Austin East
1876
Free public education for black students in Knoxville began in 1876, five years after Knoxville residents voted for free public schools in 1871.
A June 8 article in the Knoxville Chronicle reported that the “Colored School” on Central Street had recently been “purchased or leased.”
1879
Emily Austin founded the Austin School at 327 Central Street to serve local black students. She also opened a Trade School and the Slater School on Payne Street in 1885. On June 13, 1879, J.S. Fowler was appointed the first principal of the Austin School, a position he held until 1881.
1891
Emily Austin transferred control of the school to the American Missionary Society of the Congressional Church.
1915
The Knoxville High School for Colored Children was dedicated on September 23rd at 901 Payne Avenue, a new building addition to the existing Green School, built in 1909.
1916
On June 2nd, the final graduating class of Austin High School on Central Street held its graduation ceremony at Staubs Theatre.
1926
Construction has begun on Austin High School’s new building on Vine Avenue.
1928
The new Austin High School was completed at 1401 Vine Ave. and Knoxville Colored High School was renamed the Green School. The new Austin High School opened on Oct. 18.
1929
The city built a new Austin High School on East Vine Avenue.
1951
East High School was built on McCalla Road.
1968
The current Austin East High School was formed by merging Knoxville East High School and Austin High School. It was located at 2800 Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, where it still stands today. The mascot’s name was changed from the Panthers to the Roadrunners, and the school colors were changed from orange and blue to scarlet and Columbia blue. The old Austin High School became Vine Middle School.
1978
The Austin High School Alumni Association was formed and given the task of planning the school’s 100th anniversary celebrations the following year.
1979
The school community held a 100th anniversary celebration on July 7, 1979. Included in the celebration was Otis Hogue, who served as the school’s principal from 1949 until the school’s merger in 1968.
1989
Charles Mathes, a teacher at Austin High School and Austin East High School for more than 25 years, has long advocated for renaming East Vine and McCalla streets after civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In 1989, the names were officially changed and Austin East High School got a new address on the newly renamed Martin Luther King Jr. Street.
1997
The school has been designated Knox County’s only dedicated performing arts high school due to its high-quality dance, music, art and theater programs.
2018
This was the start of a new tradition that was cherished not only by the school community but by everyone in East Knoxville: the Pre-Prom Stop. It has become an annual tradition ever since.
The event gives teens a chance to show off their carefully put together outfits in a fashion show, cheered on by the community, before dancing the night away at the prom.
2019
This year marked the school’s 140th anniversary.
