In 1867, the Tennessee State Legislature passed a bill to extend the benefits of public education to both black and white children to be taught in seperate schools. The board of education rented a two story frame building from Fisk University,in the fall of 1883 the Pearl HIgh school opened on South Summer Street after a Union sympathizer Joshua Fenton Pearl. The first black high school graduates completed their studies in June, 1888. That class included three boys and four girls.By June 1897, there had been ten graduating classes, and the names of 116 persons were recorded.

Those early alumni served in their communities, schools, churches, homes, business, etc. They, along with their children, grandchildren relatives, friends, and proteges, have provided almost 100 years of  intellectual, moral, educational, civic, and social contributions throughout Nashville and the world. By the time Pearl High School opened at the foregoing North Nashville site, the names of approximately 600 "black high school graduates"were in annual reports made to Nashville Superintendent of Schools, between 1888 and 1917.

In 1986, Pearl's facilities were expanded and renamed the Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet School. Today, the school draws gifted and talented students from throughout the county who have a special interest in health, science and engineering. One hundred twenty students graduate each year. Students who would have attended Pearl High School in the past now go to the Pearl-Cohn Comprehensive High School, a much larger school with more than 1,500 students.