Clarke County School District Desegregation

The History of the Desegregation of Clarke County Schools

By Lauren Shirley

In the post-Civil War era, black Americans struggled to produce an identity for themselves in society. For hundreds of years, black people symbolized slavery and bondage. Finally, generations later, the African American race has produced a way of life in which they live amongst the white people that suppressed them all those years ago. This did not alter the fact that before desegregation in the United States, the issue of race was still very apparent. Race not only defined a person’s culture and ancestry, but also determined where one could eat, use the restroom, or even sit on a bus. During this period, blacks and whites shared many of the same freedoms, but exercised them very separately. This division between the races was especially evident in America’s schools.[1]

In Georgia, both the Constitution of 1877 and 1945 stated that “separate schools shall be provided” for whites and blacks. After this declaration, segregation of schools was sustained with the help of private philanthropic and mission organizations, and all levels of government. Unfortunately, this did not mean that both black and white schools received the same amount of federal money or resources. Black schools often were given second-hand textbooks from white schools, the teachers received lower wages, and the school buildings were old and out of date. White schools, in comparison, received more funds and so could have better facilities and resources. In 1960, L.C. Thomas, writer of Some Aspects of Biracial Public Education in Georgia, stated that many people were willing to fight for equality in black and white schools, but they must “maintain that although education be equal it must be separate.”[2]

Two major court cases, Plessey v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education, decided the final fate of segregation. In 1896, the Justices in Plessy v. Ferguson decided that segregation was constitutional. However, inequality between the races, which was a major concern during the time, would not be tolerated. The court ruled that although having “separate facilities” was fair and just, they must be “equal.” Many years later, the system of segregation came crashing down with the case of Brown v. Board of Education. The court threw out the “separate but equal” ruling from Plessy v. Ferguson, and demanded that schools throughout the United States desegregate. However, the court did not end segregation in other public places or give a deadline for the completion of school desegregation.[3]

In Georgia, the outcome of Brown v. Board of Education had a huge impact. Herman Talmadge, the Governor of Georgia at the time, did not agree with the court’s decision. He said that even if federal troops came in to force the state to comply and desegregate, they would not. The next Governor, Marvin Griffin, also took this view and wanted to turn Georgia public schools into private schools while still supplying federal funding. Due to the opposition felt within the state and local governments, a Declaration of Constitutional Principles, also known as the “Southern Manifesto,” was written. The whole Georgia “congressional delegation” signed the manifesto and encouraged other states to veto the Brown ruling. However, the courts prevailed and desegregation became a reality. Southern schools slowly started to desegregate, and a year after the decision, just one percent of southern black children were going to desegregated schools. In response to this slow movement, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed to help implement the Brown decision. Title IV of the Act put the burden on the schools to desegregate and also allowed the Departments of Health, Education, and Welfare to withhold money to schools that were still segregated. After the Civil Rights act in 1968, the percentage of black students still at desegregated schools had risen to ten percent.[4]

As the “heart of the old Cotton Kingdom,” Clarke County was a prime area to start desegregation in Georgia. Clarke Central, the main public school in the area, emerged in the middle of it. Before Brown v. Board of Education and desegregation came about, Clarke County’s School system was in the middle of a major transformation. In 1949, Clarke County consisted of five white elementary schools with seventeen teachers and twelve black elementary schools ranging from seven to ten teachers. The school system also had a modest high school with five teachers. Although there was not a black school in the Clarke County system, in 1952 the Board of Education agreed to a twenty-five year contract with the Athens City Board of Education that stated blacks could go to the new Athens High Industrial School, also known as Burney Harris. Athens City School System had only one high school for blacks, Burney Harris, and four elementary schools. Whites in the school system attended Athens High, which included an addition of an auditorium and gymnasium, a junior high school, and four elementary schools. Talks between Clarke County Board of Education and Athens City Board of Education began in 1950. Also, that same year, a new Athens High was in the process of being built on Milledge Avenue and Burney Harris, would be started soon after. In 1955, the combination of the two school systems was approved and the schools within both Clarke County and Athens City school districts were now regulated by the Clarke County Board of Education. The new Clarke County school district would not desegregate for another thirteen years.[5]

Desegregation arrived in Clarke County in 1961 when the University of Georgia was forced by the courts to allow the entrance of five black students. However this had no effect on the area public school systems. They remained segregated despite the court ruling of Brown v. Board of Education. Then in 1963 with the support of the local NAACP chapter, five black girls were admitted to the Clarke County school systems out of seven that had applied. An article appeared in the Athens Banner Herald that gave an overview of the Board of Education meeting during which the girls were given admittance. The Board stated that although the school system would prefer to keep things segregated, the way they had always been, they knew that they did not have a choice. The school system was aware that if they denied all the black girls that had applied to integrate the school, then a court proceeding would likely follow and as proven by previous cases, would not rule for the school system. In September 1963, Clarke County schools opened and the girls attended quietly without notice. These five women are today remembered as the “Forgotten Five” for their courage as the first to integrate many of the white public schools in Clarke County. Agnes Green, on of the “Five,” still recalls memories of the first few weeks at the white school. She stated, “I had never been called a nigger before. I’d lived in a segregated world, so I’d never run into that before. It’s not something you can anticipate.” Green, like many of the other black students initiating integration, was used to the feeling of equality she felt when among her black classmates. Once suddenly immersed with the white children at the white school, the reality of integration was hard to bear.[6]

Integration for these students was not always the main goal to attend the all white public schools. Some of the students yearned for an opportunity for a better education and a chance to make it to college and receive a degree. For others, it meant a shorter bus ride to a closer school. The students known as the “Forgotten Five” had a very different school year than many of the white students. Most of the time, they were taken into the school through a side door for safety reasons and were always escorted to the restroom by a teacher. The students also sat alone many times in the cafeteria and suffered verbal abuse from their fellow white classmates. For this reason, many learned to appreciate the smallest kindness. Now years later, many of the students who experienced integration first hand feel that it has allowed them to become stronger individuals and to realize whether or not they would put themselves in that same situation once again as adults, perhaps in the workplace.[7]

After the period of the “Forgotten Five,” the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed by congress, which put the burden on the Clarke Central Board of Education to get rid of segregated school systems. Clarke Central also began to fear that their funding would be retracted if they held back on to their practices of segregation any longer. One of the first desegregation methods that the Clarke Central district tried was “freedom of choice.” This plan was attempted in 1959 and again during the 1968 to 1969 school term. “Freedom of choice” extended attendance areas that would envelope both black and white schools. The students were the ones who decided which school they wished to attend on a completely voluntary basis. For Clarke Central, the high school, then known as Athens High, would be integrated and Burney Harris, the all black high school, would remain all black. However, this type of integration resulted in attendance issues for Athens High and so the plan was thrown out. In the upcoming 1969 to 1970 school year, the superintendent stated that there would not be racial limitations for enrollment into any schools in the Clarke County District. Finally on April 29 of that year, Plan A, otherwise known as the “Geographical Districting Plan,” was adopted by the Board of Education. Under this plan, the school system would send half of the high school students to Athens High and half to Burney Harris High. The plan was taken to Washington D.C. to be approved by the HEW officials on May 1, but by July 2 a letter regarding the officials disapproval of the plan arrived. Despite their criticisms of Plan A, HEW came up with a plan of their own in which the majority of white students would go to schools with twenty to forty percent black students. This Plan B would also involve new organization of the elementary schools. After much debate and yet another meeting, the Board of Education would not give up on Plan A and decided to modify it into a Compromise Plan. This plan would fulfill all that both HEW and Clarke Central wanted to attain. It would include less busing, grades first through sixth in elementary schools, low costs, good education, and a half black and white student body in East Athens and West Broad. The plan also would implement a twenty to forty percent black student body in other schools, and a redistribution of the students in the five inner city schools. On September 2, 1969, Clarke County Schools opened quietly without riots or protests.[8]

All of the black students except those still at Burney Harris High were now in desegregated schools. The number of black students had also increased from five in 1963 to eight hundred in 1967. With the help of the University of Georgia Desegregation Center, on November 25, 1969, a new plan was created that would integrate the all black high school, Burney Harris High. Awaiting the disruption of the high school , tension began to mount in the Athens community. On April 16, 1970, a day known as “Rowdy Thursday,” a group of black students at Athens high were in the cafeteria discussing a newspaper article in which they were referred to as “militants.” When asked, the black students refused to return to class and decided to leave school instead. Also during this time, a group of students at Burney Harris had vandalized their school and were on their way to Athens High. Both groups of students met and returned to Athens High where some students were supposedly attacked. The next day, attendance was down at both schools due to the situation that had occurred the previous day and this trend lasted well into early May. Because of the “loss of black identity” due to the integration of Burney Harris, tensions were rising and happened to bring front and center the racial divide that was present in the town of Athens.[9]

In response to “Rowdy Thursday,” the School Board decided to attempt to make the school just as suitable for the black students as the white students. After meeting with numerous black students, the Board was determined to make changes. They would first change the name of Athens High to Clarke Central High School, adopt new school colors and have a black Principle at Burney Harris and black assistant football coaches. The Board would also require equal entrance for school organizations, in-school training programs for personnel, multi-ethnic textbooks including one unit in black studies, and would fill vacancies to maintain the racial percentages. In 1970, the first full Monday in September, Clarke County started a school year for the first time with all schools completely desegregated.[10]

Parents and administrators at Clarke Central were still not happy with the way the schools were integrated, primarily because of the issue of busing. Because the black and white communities were still very much segregated, both black and white students were bused to their assigned school so they could fulfill the racial proportions. Most members of the community were opposed to busing but found it a last resort for complete integration of the schools. Parents argued that it was pointless to bus a student past one school to get to another. In 1968, Richard Nixon also voiced his opposition to the busing system. He believed that it was more important for students to be closer to their home “environment” than to attend an integrated school. However, many parents still agreed that integration was important because their children would face the same situation in the “real world.” The students took their own position on busing. Most did not mind the longer bus ride and as the years went on, even began to enjoy the diversity in their school. Teachers at the time agreed that the reasons that students were so fearful of the new integrated schools were because they picked up on their parent’s attitudes. The students tended to get along much better with their classmates of a different race than the parents got along with one another.[11]

After desegregation had finally been completed, both black and white students and parents learned to live amongst one another in the same school system. However to this day, there are still many after effects on those who helped integrate Clarke Central and other school systems. In other words, many saw the desegregation of schools as only a partial victory. For instance, many black students in school during the time of desegregation say that they mourned the loss of their all black schools. The black schools had not only served the community as a source of education, but also as a place where black people could come together, almost like a community center. Without the all black school, many felt a loss of black identity in Athens. Previous to the time of desegregation, black schools stood for some as symbols of black inferiority and “Jim Crow.” Today, they are looked back on as “proud institutions” that gave black communities a sense of togetherness and guidance. Many black students often look back to remember their teachers during times of segregation who used the inequality of the schools as a reason to make their students succeed. Some earlier black teachers cannot help but wonder whether Brown v. Board of Education was worth all the turmoil it caused. Teachers agree that it did bring around benefits of better facilities and resources. However, they do not believe that education was any better in an integrated school or white school than in the all black schools during that time. Some who lived during desegregation even believe that the history of it is racist in itself by hinting that blacks would sacrifice their black culture for a “white education.” In reality, those that believe in this form of racism agree that like many of their white counterparts, they had no choice in the integration of schools. Over fifty years after the desegregation of southern schools took place, individuals who were there cannot help but remember how life changing the experience was. Regardless of whether desegregation was for the good or bad for race relations and education, people on all sides of the issue will still have diverse beliefs and points of view.[12]

Today, Clarke Central is a school much different than the Athens High that existed in the fifties and sixties. The number of students currently in the Clarke County School Systems has experienced little growth over time. In the 1969 to 1970 school year, the district had a total of 10,886 students attending their schools. Thirty years later in a survey taken in 2000, 10,769 students attended Clarke County Schools. Another difference today has to do with the ethnic distribution of the school system. Clarke Central has a majority of black students now, which is a complete turnaround from the earlier times when the school was majority white. This could be because a great number of white people who used to send their children to Clarke Central have now moved to other counties surrounding Athens or because many private schools have popped up around the Athens area since that time. Regardless of the reasons, Clarke Central is, now more than ever, a changed school.[13]

Throughout history, race has been a common theme in society. To this day, it is not completely overlooked and still comes up as a topic of debate, for instance in cases of affirmative action. Due to the era of desegregation, the United States is a country no longer divided. Black and whites now come together in business settings, social settings, and educational institutions. The men and women who fought to preserve the rights of freedom and equality to every citizen of the United States took a major step to disrupt a segregated society when they pronounced schools as a place where all are welcome regardless of race.