Benjamin Franklin High School is a public high school located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The school, located north of Center City, is a part of the School District of Philadelphia. Franklin serves sections of North Philadelphia and Center City.Franklin is a mostly African American school. In the late 1960s, there was a student-led effort to rename the school in honor of recently slain Malcolm X. This effort officially failed, but some students still refer to the school by this name.Around 2005 Franklin began housing a charter school catering to Chinese Americans. In addition, as part of an international studies academy, it added Mandarin Chinese as a foreign language for study in 2005. The new international studies focus attracted 40 new students from the Chinatown area.HistoryIn September 1979 the school opened up to the first 9th graders and females. The class of 1979–1980 graduated its first and only female, Iris Chase, who wore a white and red robe instead of a blue and gold one.Franklin was one of the first high schools in Philadelphia serving the African American community. By the late 1980s the school had become run down and plagued with violence. Conditions at Franklin worsened when the School District of Philadelphia cut the school's funding due to many economic problems in the area. In 2007, a $4 million renovation was made. The renovations included the gymnasium, auditorium and classrooms, and front entrance facade, as well as the replacement of doors and windows. In order to create new classroom space, a small rooftop building addition was constructed, with the addition of new steel dunnage and air handling units.
