Taft Middle School Graduates Teach Student Song From 1937

A source of school pride forgotten about for decades is re-dedicated at Taft Middle School in Oklahoma City.

The Class of 1951 visited current students to breathe new life into an old school song.

“It's kind of different having a school song that you've never known about all your years at Taft,” said Ahmad Byrd, a Taft eighth grade student.

The song was written in the 1930s and was played some over the past decades, but it has not been played in recent years. Current students never knew it existed.

“It was different, we've never had a song here, so, I'd like to learn it,” said 8^th grade student Brittany Motes.  “It's pretty cool,” she added.

The class of 1951 came back and presented the song to the students. They also dedicated several other things like old pictures and newspaper clippings dating back nearly seventy years.

“Kids don't know and we don't tell them the history of the school that they are attending and this was an opportunity for them to learn about that history,” said Principal Charmaine Johnson.

The alumni even toured the newly renovated school and explained to the students how things used to look.

“They told us about how the school used to be and it's crazy how much the school has changed since then,” said Israel Hardy, a Taft eighth grade student.

With such a storied past, the school is creating a wall of fame for distinguished alumni and now they have a school song to go with it.

“This is really going to engrain in them that pride that we always talk about daily in our Taft creed and this gives it meaning,” Johnson told News 9.

The students are going to start learning the school song and they hope to start performing it by the end of September.