York High School opened in 1954 as the public school for grades 6 through 12 for the white children of York County under the separate but equal system, while the York County Training School in the Grafton area of York County would be used by black students. Before York High School opened, students attended other neighboring high schools: Poquoson, Magruder in Williamsburg, and Morrison in Newport News, later to be known as Warwick High School. Black students in Grades 1 - 12 attended the newly constructed James Weldon Johnson School. York High School issued its first student yearbook, then titled "The York Bugle," in 1955.