The Desegregation of Schools in Ben Hill County

Ryan Couch

History 3090

Dr. Gagnon

The process of the desegregation of schools in Ben Hill County was a long and complicated journey. At the time of desegregation there were two school systems in Ben Hill County. There was both a city system and a county system. These systems were often at odds with each other. The city system was more ready to accept integration and maintain control of their system at the local level, whereas the county system was more determined to fight integration to the very end even if it meant their school systems would be run by court order. Citizens living in both the city and county were divided on the issue of integration, but in the county there were more residents that were resistant to change than there were in the city. Eventually, the citizens of both the city and the county accepted and were brought together for the betterment of their children’s education by desegregation.

The county was divided into four schools Ashton, Lynwood, Roanoke, and Queensland. Queensland served blacks from first to twelfth grades. Roanoke served whites from first to seventh grades, and Lynwood and Ashton served whites from first to ninth. After completing the ninth grade county whites attended Fitzgerald High. The city was divided into three schools: Fitzgerald Elementary, Fitzgerald High and Monitor. Monitor served black students from the first grade to the twelfth grade. Fitzgerald Elementary saved whites from first to seventh grades, and Fitzgerald High served city whites from the eight to the twelfth grades and county whites from the tenth to the twelfth grades.

In January of 1965, both the Ben Hill County Board of Education and the Fitzgerald Board of Education were given until March 3, 1965 to sign certificates of compliance to the Civil Rights Act. They had the choice of signing or losing federal funds and commodities as well as having federal action brought against them to desegregate. At an area meeting in Americus the superintendents of both systems were told “that local systems signing certificates could desegregate by using a plan based on either attendance areas, freedom of choice, pupil placement, or some other method which would avoid discrimination on the ground of race, color, or national origin.”[1] Both boards complied with the order and sent in plans for desegregation.

The city’s plan allowed students to attend the school of their choice regardless of grade, race, or color. The plan was rejected by the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW). The Fitzgerald Board of Education changed the plan making it mandatory for all black parents to make a choice of schools for their children to attend. In July the proposal was finally accepted. This placed the Fitzgerald system among the first systems in Georgia to get approval. The plan sent in by the Ben Hill County Board of Education was similar to the one sent in by the city and the county was required to make theirs mandatory as well before it was accepted. The city had twelve blacks (all girls) request transfer and all were accepted. The county system had no requests for transfers.

In March of 1966, both the city and county systems learned that they would be required to have a specific percentage of integration of pupils and some degree of faculty integration for the 1967-1968 school term. At a city board of education meeting the superintendent of the Fitzgerald system, Mr. Jim Gurley, explained “that a minimum of eighty to ninety Monitor students must be transferred to formerly white city schools next fall” and “some faculty integration in every school building in the system” will be required.[2] This led the Fitzgerald Board of Education to lay out plans for the construction of a one million dollar high school which would consolidate Monitor, Queensland and Fitzgerald High Schools into a new high school. This high school would be entirely funded by the state. The city board advised the people to quit thinking about integration negatively and to think about what is best for the education or the children. They all so appointed one black teacher to Fitzgerald Elementary and one to Fitzgerald High.

The county board declined the proposal to consolidate the Queensland High School into a new Fitzgerald High School “on the basis that it will force integration upon Negro pupils at Queensland.”[3] The county board did agree to comply with the regulation requiring school boards to bring about ten percent of the total black population if less than that percentage request transfers to white schools, but said they would not make any assignments for black faculty members to teach at white schools. The county board agreed to reconsider sending Queensland students to Fitzgerald High School after they were confronted with the possibility of the city being forced by government agencies to return all the white high school students to the county. They agreed to consolidate the upper four grades of the Queensland High School and at the same time to send the ninth graders from Ashton and Lynwood as well. The city board then proposed a consolidated junior high school, but the county would not agree to the proposal. The State School Board then informed the two systems that it would not approve a new high school for senior high students, without offering comparable facilities to all school children. So, the funds for the construction of the high school depended on the consolidation of the junior high and the consolidation of all county elementary schools.

In April of 1967, after minimal requests for transfers from Monitor for the 1967-1968 term, the Fitzgerald Board of Education concluded that the Freedom-of-Choice plan was not going to eliminate the dual school system. Therefore, the city board consolidated the entire twelfth grade of Monitor into the Fitzgerald High School.

In May of 1967, the State board of Education postponed support of the Ben Hill- Irwin Vocational-Technical School because the state board was having difficulties in dealing with the Ben Hill Board of Education. The trade school was not connected to the county board. They also cut off federal funds to the kindergarten and dismissed five teachers that were federally funded at the Queensland. HEW also indicated that it might require the county system to terminate its contract with the city system. The county would no longer be able to send their students to the city high school. If HEW forced this before the new high school could be built the county would probably be forced to form a consolidated county high school at Queensland, or to close county schools. The Ben Hill County Council of the Parent-Teacher Association then recommended the total consolidation of county and city school systems to avoid operation of the county schools by federal court. The county school board then met an agreement in which Roanoke and Ashton Schools would be consolidated into one county elementary school at Lynwood. The state did not require that Queensland be included in the county elementary school. The county voters had to vote in a referendum to approve bonds for the county’s share of the expansion of Lynwood. The merger was approved by the voters 241 to 158.

In April of 1967, the Justice Department announced that a desegregation suit had been filed against Ben Hill County in federal court in Columbus. This was the first such suit in the state of Georgia. The suit was brought about because of the county system’s refusal to assign black teachers to white schools and its refusal to transfer black students to reach certain percentages of integration. The superintendent of the county school system, Mr. J.C. Hunter, said “that his mandate from the citizens of the county has been to resist integration even at the cost of federal funds. ‘I’m sure they all feel that we will have integration in the end, but they don’t want it until we are forced into it.’” [4] In the ten page civil action brought against the board, the document specified that grades tenth through twelfth at Queensland would attend city schools beginning that September, and that grades eighth through ninth are to attend county schools other than Queensland (either Lynwood or Ashton). Grades first through seventh at Queensland could still be operated under the freedom of choice plan for the 1967-1968 term. Also the freedom of choice could be used for the 1968-1969 for grades first through seventh if it produced a satisfactory degree of integration. Finally, all county schools except Lynwood would be closed by September of 1969, by which time the city and county buildings were to be completed and Queensland grades first through seventh were to be assigned to Lynwood and grades eighth through twelfth would be assigned to city schools.

In June of 1967, the Fitzgerald City Council turned down a resolution that would have conveyed ownership of properties to the Georgia Education Authority (Schools), on which the new high school was supposed to be built. At the council meeting was a group of about fifty citizens that opposed the consolidated high school. After this development the city superintendent of schools, Mr. Jim Gurley, tried to resign at a city school board meeting with over 350 citizens giving there full support to the board and its programs in attendance. The board refused to consider it. There was also the threat of a massive resignation by the faculty in the Fitzgerald system. Coach Joe Compton spoke for the faculty and said that

“I read where we lead the state in integration. This year we had nineteen colored children in our school and our neighbors to the south had one hundred. They are expecting fifty more next year…Our goal in the Fitzgerald schools is good education-not fighting integration. If the opposition could understand this I don’t see how they could remain opposition for long…We are going to have integration in our schools this fall. We will have it with a good faculty or with the faculty you can try to acquire.[5]

Cooler heads managed to prevail and there were no resignations by faculty, although Superintendent Gurley did resign a few months later.

In June of 1967, the county and city agreed to accept the Queensland high school students in September. The county school system agreed to accept Queensland eight and ninth graders at Ashton and Lynwood. The city agreed to take tenth and eleventh graders at Monitor High School and the twelfth grade at Fitzgerald High. This came about because the city board was made party to the civil action filed against the county board. The city board said they were declining to fight the case in court. This along with the realization that the federal authorities would accept nothing less than the integration of Queensland high school students led to the decision by the county. The county was correct. A couple of weeks later federal Judge J. Robert Elliot ruled that Queensland school be closed as of September 1969.

The State Board of Education made a decision to reconsider the bond issue for the construction of the consolidated high school if the council reversed its decision by an August 15 deadline. This along with the support of the citizens at the previously mentioned Fitzgerald Board of Education meeting led the City Council to reconsider the deeding the property to the state. But the council had some concerns about deeding property that it did not actually own yet. After documents from the State Department of Education cleared this matter up the City Council called for a referendum. The referendum was not binding, but it could be used by the council in making there decision. The voters voted by a fifteen vote margin against a new high school.[6] Mayor Etheridge Paulk called for a city council meeting, but a majority of the council members did not show. Their absence in effect vetoed the proposed high school.

In October of 1967, HEW informed both boards that it would require all Georgia systems to submit written plans for elimination of dual school systems by September 1969. HEW warned that freedom of choice plans and pairing of grades would not be viewed favorably. They also stated that they would extend the deadline to 1970 if construction of new buildings was already under way. The two systems continued the freedom of choice plans for the 1968-1969 school term, but were confronted with housing problems when ninety to one hundred blacks and twenty to thirty whites previously attending county schools applied for transfers to city schools. The city eventually decided to accept all transfers and had to reopen the vacated Third Ward building. They planned to use the building to house the eighth grade Fitzgerald High students but not the eighth grade students from Monitor. The Third Ward building had no cafeteria, so the students would have to be bused to the Fitzgerald High School for lunch.

At a meeting in May of 1968 the city board was instructed by HEW to increase faculty and student integration in September 1968 and to completely abolish the dual system by September 1969. Specifically they were to have at least twelve teachers teaching in minority situations and to transfer the Monitor eighth graders along with the Fitzgerald High eight graders to the Third Ward in September. They were also ordered to submit a plan outlining how they would completely eliminate the dual schools by September 1969. The HEW representatives “pointed out that the city has separate but not equal schools, noting at Monitor: an inferior academic program reflected in achievement level tests; the absence of such courses taught at Fitz-High as mechanical drawing, French, bookkeeping and auto mechanics; three ‘very substandard’ classrooms, and 2,000 less library books than Fitz-High.”[7] The city board submitted a plan in which it would begin to negotiate immediately with the State Board of Education for a renewal of the funds granted the previous year for the consolidated high school, and would negotiate with the City Council for the deeding of the property for construction of the high school if the funds were made available. Also, they would proceed with freedom of choice plans for the 1968-1969 school term (necessitating the movement of eighth graders from Fitzgerald High School to Third Ward) and with plans to desegregate faculty in each school. This plan was rejected by HEW.

At this time a group of black citizens attending a candidates’ workshop went on record as being in favor of a city-wide junior high at monitor and a city-wide high school at Fitzgerald High School. They also passed a resolution requesting black representation on both boards. The resolution also declared the freedom of choice plan unconstitutional because “it did not integrate the Negro school at the student level.”[8] This workshop along with the rejection of the city board’s plan for elimination of dual schools led to the realization that it was entirely feasible for white students to be forced to attend previously all black schools. The City Council then passed a resolution in support of a consolidated high school. The new high school now depended on appropriation of funds by the State Legislature. In a surprise move in September 1968 the State Department of Education allocated the funds for the new consolidated high school. The city board had previously been told that the school would hinge on allocations made by the 1969 State Legislature.

This allocation of funds allowed the Fitzgerald City Board of Education and HEW to work out a plan for the elimination of the dual school system by September 1969. The new plan called for the new high school to serve all students of both races for grades nine through twelve of the city and county, the existing buildings at Fitzgerald High School would serve as a junior high for city students of both races for grades five through eight, and the Fitzgerald Elementary school would serve city students of both races for grades one through four. This plan was not supported by all blacks. A group of six blacks representing the Ben Hill County Civic League appeared before the city board and informed the board “that Negro citizens are concerned about the loss of Monitor school, and conveyed a general sentiment in the community of wanting to maintain the school.”[9]

The City Council authorized a lease agreement with the State Building Authority for the new county wide high school in the Fourth Ward urban renewal area in February of 1969 and construction of the school began. For the 1969-1970 school term both systems continued with the freedom of choice plans. They hoped for an extension of the September 1970 deadline for the elimination of dual schools, because construction would not be complete at that time. Those hopes were dashed when HEW ordered total integration in schools for the 1970-1971 school term. This led to county and city students of both races in grades ten through twelve attending Fitzgerald High School. Ninth graders of both races and from both city and county attended school at the Third Ward. All county students of both races in grades one through eight attended Lynwood. In the city, all students grade one through eighth east of the north-south Seaboard Coastline railroad tracks would attend Monitor and all students west of the tracks would attend Fitzgerald Elementary. Also there would be a freedom of choice plan open to children attending a school in which there race was in the minority. This plan remained in effect until the new Fitzgerald High School was completed in September 1971.

This forced integration angered some parents and they started a local organization, Parents for Freedom. They used this as a platform to speak out against disruption of neighborhood schools and the busing of school children. This group was led by, Reverend W.H. Farris, the pastor of Mt. Olive Baptist church. Reverend Farris stated that, “My children have attended integrated schools for two years, and I am not against that at all …But I am against moving children around simply to satisfy some HEW quota.”[10] This group never garnered much support and faded away after a couple of months.

There was divisions between both county and city residents and between both the Ben Hill Board of Education and the Fitzgerald Board of Education. There were some residents that wanted to fight to the end, but the majority of the residents wanted their local system to run the school rather than the school being run under court order. Resistance to integration slowly eroded away under pressure brought about by the majority of the citizens wanting and needing a better education for their children regardless of race. Although these divisions threatened to split and divide city and county, in the end they brought about a stronger community and developed better and more efficient school systems in both the county and city.