In 1955 a study by Tholas House titled "A Survey of the Difficulties Experienced by the Student-teachers in the Teaching of History at Alabama State Laboratory High School and Booker T. Washington High School, Montgomery, Ala" was published.
[6] In 1957 Irene C. Williams published A Study of the Relationship Between Retardation and Drop-outs in the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Grades at the Booker T. Washington High School, Montgomery, Alabama, 1953-55 at Alabama State University Press.
[7] Jeremiah Reeves, who played drums at the school, was convicted of rape in 1952 and sentenced to death.
Attorney Fred Gray then won her appeals in the Browder v. Gayle case which, in November, 1956, resulted in the United States Supreme Court decision ending legal segregation on buses in the United States.
Colvin was involved in a youth NAACP organization at the school, and her most influential teacher there was Geraldine Nesbitt.