From where did the name L.C. Humes for the school derive? Lawrence Cavell Humes was a resident of Memphis in the 1920’s. He was a Vice President of The First National Bank of Memphis. He was elected to the Memphis Board Of Education in November, 1920 with service to begin on the second Monday of January in 1922. Throughout the calendar year of 1921 the newly elected board members attended the board meetings with current board. At the board meeting on January 10, 1922 Mr. Humes was selected to be Chairman of the Board by the other members.

The 1920’s was a period of rapid growth in the population of Memphis causing the need for additional school buildings. At that time there were two public high schools, Crockett Tech and Central. To alleviate the growing student population a new high school was constructed in south Memphis in 1922 and appropriately named South Side High School.

This new school on the south side did not address the growing student population on the north side of Memphis. At several school board meetings in 1922 the board discussed a need to find funds for a high school on the north side of Memphis. Parent associations at LeRoy Pope Elementary and Guthrie Elementary, both located on Chelsea Avenue, lobbied the board to build the new high school next to their existing schools. On August 22, 1922, 2.2 acres adjacent to Guthrie were obtained as a potential site for the new high school. Then on November 14, 1922 a developer offered to sell five acres at a reasonable cost at Evergreen and Tutwiler as a site for the school. This offer caused a spirited discussion between various factions and the board did not purchase the property. Eventually land was procured on west side of North Manassas between Jackson Avenue on the south and Saffarans Avenue on the north where Humes High School was constructed in 1925.

Lawrence Humes died on February 4, 1925 of heart disease at age 44 so he probably was not alive when the construction of the school was completed.