KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — One Knoxville high school is celebrating 140 years of educating some of the city's finest.
Decades after graduating, Austin-East High School alumni are proud of their school's history, and the role it's played in East Tennessee.
This weekend they're celebrating Austin High School opening its doors in East Knoxville 140 years ago.
"It's just a great time to be here together," said Robert Booker, class of 1953.
Not everyone at Friday night's alumni picnic was related, but they come together like a family every five years to celebrate their alma mater.
"Hey we could've been gone, they could have wiped us out the city," said Joyce Ann Riddle, Austin High class of 1962.
Riddle was one of countless students bused across the area to Austin High during the days of segregation.
"I thought we had lived long enough separated by two different sides of town and by two different races, it was ridiculous," said Riddle.
Austin High School was the only school for African-American students in the area up until the school was desegregated in the late 1960s.
That's when Austin and East high schools came together as one.
When they merged with students of every color, it was something Riddle said she'll never forget.
"I was pleased," said Riddle. "It was about time."
But school pride started well before the combining of these two high schools.
"They're interested in the history of their, school they're interested in that tradition," said Booker. "They're interested in coming back to reminisce about teachers and classmates and people that they met along the way."
Reunion organizers said that's why people keep coming back from all over the country.
It's to celebrate the alumni and cheer on a new generation of students.
"They're a different breed of cat," said Riddle. "They're not gonna let stuff happen to them the way some things happened to us."
Saturday is the big Austin-East reunion downtown and they've sold out with 1,200 people buying tickets to come celebrate their old high school.