In a report by Superintendent Caldwell in 1880-1881 he shared that, "at least 150 Black students had been refused permission to enter a school because there was no room for them.

Robert S. White, a Black man with three years teaching experience, served as Meigs' first principal.

[4] By 1884, many African Americans were elected to reconstruction legislatures in the south and "must be credited with making public education available to both poor whites and blacks.

"[5] Even with Meigs (still a grammar school), students had no place to obtain an education beyond eighth grade.

There were no temporary or permanent high school facilities in Nashville for these rejected students, as the law directed...

It would be high and noble compliance on the part of the city to as speedily as possible consummate permanent high school facilities for the present and rapidly growing class of colored youth who are passing beyond the present school grades and who for the lack of which are forced to close their school lives much earlier than at first contemplated... A petition be circulated among all colored people and their friends for signatures asking the City Council for the necessary approbation for the above purpose" [7] The notice of the follow-up was inserted in the daily papers on September 16, 1886, and asked for inter-racial effort, saying: "All citizens, both white and colored, who are interested in promoting the educational interests of the youth of the city are earnestly and cordially requested to meet at the Spruce Street Baptist Church on Friday evening September 17th to take further steps by endorsing the object and action of the meeting held at the Clark Chapel Tuesday night, toward securing the high-grades in the colored public schools which they are now deprived of".

Meigs Magnet Middle Prep was recognized by the Department of Education as a Blue Ribbon School in 2013.