Molli Freeman-Lynde
History of the American South
MWF 8:00AM-8:50AM
November 4th, 2004

Desegregation in Clarke County

On May 17th, 1954, history was made in the United States when the Supreme Court ruled that “To separate them [black children in grade and high schools] from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely to ever be undone.” But the ruling could not single-handedly end centuries of oppression and marginalization. The long and difficult road towards reconciliation and unity was started down with that legendary ruling, but it is still being traveled down today. The purpose of this paper is to examine the process of integration in Athens-Clarke County, Georgia. The paper focuses on the merging of the then primarily white Athens High School and all-black Burney-Harris High School to form Clarke Central High School in 1970. It travels through time from the Brown v. Board of Education decision handed down in 1954 all the way to the problems with race in the schools today. The paper also gives some background into the reaction to the Brown decision across the state of Georgia.1

When the Brown decision was announced, the reaction in Georgia was immediate and fiercely opposed to compliance with the Supreme Court’s decision “Getting word of Brown, Governor Herman Talmadge of Georgia exclaimed, ‘I do not believe in Negroes and whites associating with each other either socially or in school systems, and as long as I am governor, it won’t happen.’” Governor Talmadge proposed to shut down the public schools and use the money to reimburse parents for sending their kids to private (segregated) schools. The campaign for governor in 1954 revolved almost entirely around the issue of integration, or rather, the preservation of segregation in Georgia public schools. There were nine candidates running. One, the lone woman, was also the only candidate who advocated complying with Brown. Two others urged calm and said that they would find a way to preserve segregation without having to cause a big fuss or disband public schools. The rest of the candidates supported the governor's private school plan and urged massive resistance to integration. The Lieutenant Governor, Marvin Griffin, who was the most ardent supporter of the governor’s plan and the most outspoken against integration, won the seat overwhelmingly in the same election in which Georgia voters overwhelmingly passed the private school plan. In 1956 Georgia actually passed a law making it “a felony for any state or local official to spend public funds on desegregated schools.” Naturally this meant that there were no desegregated schools in Georgia.2

In Clarke County events occurred slightly differently. While most of the citizens of Athens were opposed to integration, a majority of them voted for Fred Hand, one of the two gubernatorial candidates advocating calm, with the close runner up the second candidate, M. E. Thompson. Unlike the majority opinion in Georgia, Athens voters voted against the private school amendment. In a survey taken in Athens just after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown, the general sentiment seemed to be one of wait and see, not outrage. People also seemed to feel that there was no reason to integrate because blacks themselves preferred separate schools. In one letter to the editor a woman named Marianne Fink chastised the governor for his stand against the Supreme Court and urged him to acknowledge the presence in Georgia of people working to integrate the schools. She mentioned a group in Athens who had been working to promote integration for many years.3

All of these facts aside, Athens made no attempts towards even token integration until 1963. On August 14, 1963 a group of about 100 citizens petitioned the Board, asking them to comply with the Supreme Court decisions. On August 26, 1963, 135 members of the Clarke County NAACP petitioned the Board, again asking them to comply with the Supreme Court. That same day, under Clarke County’s freedom of choice plan, which allowed parents to choose where they wanted their children to attend school, five black girls, of seven students who petitioned for transfer, were reluctantly given permission to leave all-black schools and attend formerly all-white schools. One of these girls, Wilucia Green, was the first black student to attend Athens High School. These five girls officially integrated the Clarke County schools when they began classes on September 11, 1963. At that time there were 6, 150 white students in Clarke County and 3, 213 black students. Most requests for transfers to white schools in the following year were denied, so with the exception of these five girls and a few other successful transfers, schools remained segregated. However, because Clarke County had a freedom of choice policy, Athens met HEW requirements for several more years.4

By September 8, 1965, the Clarke County Board of Education had admitted about 200 black students to predominately- or all-white schools under its freedom of choice plan. This same year the Board desegregated the Clarke County buses “which had resulted in some minor problems.” On January 25, 1965 the Board signed HEW-411, a statement of compliance with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. On July 12, 1967 the Board received a letter from the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) which said that Clarke County schools were making “reasonable progress” in desegregating, and that they didn’t anticipate any problems with Clarke County’s compliance with HEW standards.5

By the end of the 1967-1968 school year it was obvious that the board would have to make some changes. Almost 800 black students were enrolled in what had been all-white schools. This led to problems with overcrowding of some schools and under enrollment at others. Also, there were still five schools that were not integrated. The biggest problems were with the elementary schools, and the Board began to formulate a plan to deal with the situation. In October of 1968 the Superintendent appointed a three person committee to examine the integration problem and report back to the full board. HEW initially gave the Board a deadline of November 28 to come up with an acceptable plan, but extended the deadline to January 1, 1969. In February, 1969 the committee had been studying their options for three months without making a conclusion. They had presented six plans, each unsuccessful. In March the Superintendent met with the Desegregation Center at the University of Georgia to see if they had any help to offer. March 13, 1969 the Board received a letter from HEW confirming their noncompliance with HEW because of their failure to have submitted a desegregation plan in January. The letter stated that federal funds would be deferred within the next ninety days. Not only did the Board have to remove laws requiring segregation, but they had to find a plan that would satisfactorily eliminate the dual system.6

Finally, on April 29, 1969 the Board met to hear from the special committee and adopt a plan. The committee unanimously recommended a neighborhood or geographical districting plan. They had been told by HEW officials that this plan would be approved. The Board approved the plan presented by the committee, by a vote of five for, four against. The complete geographical districting plan was submitted to HEW in Washington on April 30, 1969, and consisted of six items. The first was a map of the elementary school districts in 1968-1969 and the second a map of the elementary school districts for 1969-1970. The third was a feeder plan showing students moving from elementary to middle school, and the fourth a feeder plan for senior high in 1970-1971, when the new high school was supposed to be completed. The fifth was a minority transfer policy the Board had drawn up which said that students who were in the minority in their school and got changed, because of redistricting, to a school where they were the majority could transfer back to the school where they were a minority. The last item was a statement dedicated to promoting the desegregation of the professional staff. HEW wouldn’t reject or accept this plan when initially presented with it, instead asking for clarification.7

But eventually HEW notified the board that the Neighborhood Schools plan was not acceptable. They suggested a plan B, under which all schools would be 25 to 40% black, and the elementary schools would be split into grades one through three in some schools and grades four through six in others. At this point the board considered three options. They could appeal HEW’s rejection of their plan and keep the original plan. They could use the plan HEW recommended, or they could take the original plan and revise it so that it would be more acceptable to HEW. July 10 another committee was appointed to consider these options and report back to the Board. The Board met on July 16, and after a long, drawn out session they decided, by a vote of seven for, three against, to stand by their original plan. This was after a failed vote of four for, six against on adopting HEW’s plan and a three for, seven against vote to amend their original plan. On July 31 the Board met and adopted the Compromise Plan, based on their original plan, but hopefully more acceptable to HEW. This plan involved the same geographical zoning idea, but students would also be bused from areas with too high a concentration of one race to provide the right balance. Under the Compromise Plan each school would have the acceptable range of percentages of black students and white students. This plan drew much criticism from parents of students who would have to be bused, but the Board stood by their decision. The plan was approved by HEW on August 7, 1969, and Clarke County was finally back in compliance with HEW standards.8

The board held a special meeting on Aug. 13, 1969, at the request of some parents. A group of concerned parents from University Heights had hired an attorney and wanted the Board to reconsider the Compromise Plan. They did not want their children having to be bused long distances when there were schools closer to home. The board listened to the parents, but voted to keep the Compromise Plan.9

When school began in September of 1969 there were no boycotts and no violence. All of the schools had been successfully desegregated, with one exception. Burney-Harris High School was still all-black, and was an icon for the black community. Under HEW requirements Clarke County could have no all-black schools, and so the Board had to integrate Burney-Harris. The Board came up with a plan for the fall of 1970 that would place all tenth graders in the Burney-Harris building and all eleventh- and twelfth-graders in the Athens High building. To try to facilitate a smooth transition to integrated high schools a group of about 24 students from both high schools began meeting in mid-December, 1969 to discuss how to merge the two high school identities, including school colors, the new school name, mascot, and many other factors.10

In spite of this effort, tensions continued to rise between the black and white high schoolers. A newspaper article from April 15, 1970 documents some of the tensions. On April 14 thirty-five black students from Athens High met with the superintendent to discuss what they felt were various ways they were being discriminated against, including treatment by teachers and access to clubs and other organizations. During the week leading up to this meeting there were rumors of disruption and violence. Minor fights broke out at a basketball game on Thursday, April 9, and during school Friday, April 10. Teachers locked their doors and police patrolled the grounds, where some students had reported slashed tires. The student council continued to meet, and there were community meetings to discuss the problem. 11

The article from Wednesday did not go over well with some students. Thursday morning a crowd of black students were discussing the article in the lobby at Athens High. The principle and other staff tried to get the students to go to class, and while most did, some refused. These students left the building and met up with a group of students from Burney-Harris who had been heading to Athens High. The students came back to Athens High, where they attacked several students. Then they left Athens High and returned to Burney-Harris, where they “smashed flower pots, discharged fire extinguishers, knocked out windows and broke glass panels in doors. They also littered the school with trash.” A restraining order was issued for twelve students by name and 100 additional demonstrators as John Does. Police were stationed at both high schools to patrol and keep any more disturbances from happening. Approximately 35 to 40 percent of students were absent from Athens High that Friday, and there was continued low attendance the rest of the year. Friday morning a large group of students met near Burney-Harris. They asked to speak with the Superintendent, who spent an hour talking to the students and trying to explain the situation. After they talked, some students went to class and some left the school.12

After this occurrence the tension seemed to die down. The students continued to make recommendations to the Board, who decided to call the newly merged school Clarke Central High School. Its colors were, and still are, red and gold. Red from Athens High and gold from Burney-Harris. In the fall of 1970 the first fully integrated high school class entered Clarke Central High School, and 532 seniors, black and white, graduated June 3, 1971. It was the largest graduating class in the county’s history. The theme of the graduating class was “The Need for Open Minds in a Changing World.” One of the four speakers was a black girl named Angie Bolton, who spoke on education and said, “One of man’s greatest realizations in the past ten years has been recognizing that the dual school system is unrealistic and unfair.” The day after this momentous occasion the first graduation was held at Athens Academy. Eight white students graduated. Perhaps ironically, Athens Academy’s mascot today is the Spartan, the mascot of Athens High before it was integrated and the mascot changed to the gladiator. 13

Today’s high school situation looks vastly different from in 1954, or even 1970. There has been massive white flight from the public schools in Clarke County, either to private schools or to neighboring Oconee County schools. In the 2002-2003 school year there were 4,815 high school students enrolled in the two public high schools in Clarke County and the one public high school in Oconee County. Of these students, 2,572 were white, 1802 were black, 320 were Latino/a, and 115 were Asian or Pacific Islander. In the Clarke County public high schools there were 1,710 black students, 273 Latino/a students, 82 Asian or Pacific Islanders and 1, 011 white students. While the racial breakdown of all three schools was 53.42% white, 37.42% black , 6.66% Latino/a and 2.39% Asian or Pacific Islander, the numbers were very different in Clarke and Oconee counties. 94.89% of black students were in the two Clarke County public high schools. 85.31% of Latino/a students attended the public high schools in Clarke County. Only 71.3% of Asian or Pacific Islander students attended public high schools in Clarke County, and a mere 39.31% of white students attended public high schools in Clarke County. Additionally, in the 2001-2002 school year there were three private schools in Clarke and Oconee counties that had a total of 495 students. The student body at Athens Academy was 86.4% white, the student body at Prince Avenue Christian School was 92.5% white, and the student body at Westminster Christian Academy was 96% white.14

It is clear from these numbers that there has been, at best, little progress in desegregating Clarke County. This is frightening by itself, but especially when examining the fact that compared with much of the South, especially rural areas, Athens is progressive. If Athens is in such bad shape, it is almost too much to consider what some areas of the south must look like. When the Supreme Court ruled on Brown v. Board of Education, they surely could not have imagined that fifty years later many schools would still be primarily black or white. Saint Joseph’s, another private school in Athens, is beginning a high school program. The numbers moving to Oconee County keep growing, while the poor get poorer and the rich get richer. It is hard to know where to go from here, although some people would say this trend is inevitable. But there are many people working to improve race relations across the country, even in the face of opposition perhaps as strong as in 1954, though much more subtle. But if that court, made up of nine old, white men, could see the wrong being perpetuated and work to right it, against the beliefs of the time, then surely there will always be some people ready to fight the good fight, as long and as hard as they have the strength to carry on.

Some sites of possible interest:

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