In 1924, this neighborhood was annexed, and the Detroit Board of Education planned to build an integrated school to service the area, However, White residents objected, and instead the Board acquired land to build this school to serve Black students.

In 1926, the Board hired the Detroit architectural firm of N. Chester Sorensen Company to design the school.

[2] When it was opened, Higginbotham Elementary School served Black students in kindergarten through eighth grade, and had a capacity of 580 pupils.

In 2006, it became the home of the W. E. B. DuBois/Aisha Shule Preparatory Academy, a charter school which served grades six through twelve.

[2] In 2024, a $35.9 million redevelopment project was begun to turn the school into 100 units of affordable housing, known as the Higginbotham Art Residences.