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The African-American Community Forum
Part II of III. 1970 – Wilkes County Board of Education desegregation plan

I brought to your attention in last week’s article that there was a lag of 16 years before the Wilkes Count Board of Education implemented its desegregation plan at the beginning of the school year, 1970-71. Now, I wish to share with you the 16 years of events between 1954 and 1970 that caused that delay. The description of these events is taken from a timeline report published in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper.

Here are some of the key events that helped to shape school desegregation in Georgia and that account for the Wilkes County Board of Education’s delayed desegregation plan.

As reported in the word of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, they are: (1) May 17, 1954. The United States Supreme Court decision on Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka strikes at the very heart of the South’s social system when it outlaws racial segregation in the nation’s public schools. Then-state Attorney General Eugene Cook declares the ruling doesn’t apply to Georgia.

(2) January 1955. New Georgia Governor and Segregationist Marvin Griffin pledges financial support to [school] districts facing desegregation efforts.

(3) July 1955. State School Board issues resolution to revoke licenses of any teacher who supports integration. Attorney General Cook wants teachers who are NAACP members terminated.

(4) September 23, 1955 – More than 200 leading state politicians, including Governor Griffin, meet to strategize “massive resistance” to integration.

(5) 1956. A resolution declaring Brown v. Board of Education null and void passes the state Senate by a 30-0 vote. It passes the House 1781. Lawmakers pass several school closing laws as part of their massive resistance to strategy.

(6) January 1959. Governor Ernest Vandiver pledges to maintain segregation. In Hunt v. Arnold, the federal court for the first time rules against public school segregation in Georgia, declaring the school now called Georgia State University could no longer deny admission to black students.

(7) June 1959. Arguments in Calhoun v. Latimer heard in court. Federal Judge Frank Hooper rules Atlanta public schools are segregated and orders a desegregation play by December.

(8) December 1959-January 1960. Desegregation plan filed by Atlanta school district requires black students to take intelligence and personality tests to attend white schools. Approved slight revisions; implementation set for September.

(9) 1960. During the legislative session, a white-led group called “Our Public Education,” which advocates against the closure of schools, presents lawmakers with a petition containing 10,000 signatures.

(10) January 1961. Lawmakers repeal much of their segregation legislation. Atlanta Chamber of Commerce rallies Georgia businesses to keep public education open, saying the state needs an educated workforce to be competitive.

(11) July 2, 1964. Civil Rights act passes, authorizing federal authorities to cut off federal funds to segregated schools.

(12) 1965. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act passes Congress in an attempt to address inequities among students. Funding includes Title I programs to help low-income students.

(13) Spring 1967. More than 100 Georgia school districts [including Wilkes County] remain completely segregated, some willfully so.

(14) May 1968. United States Supreme Court rules “freedom of choice” districts must use other means if still relatively segregated. Second ruling in 1969 orders complete desegregation.

(15) December 1969. Georgia [school] districts, by federal court order, risk losing funding if not in compliance by September 1970.

(16) 1970. The all-black Georgia Teachers & Education Association merges with the all-white Georgia Education Association to become the Georgia Association of Educators.

(17) November 1970. Governor Jimmy Carter elected announces the end of discrimination at his inauguration in January 1971. End of the 16-year timeline.

The Wilkes County School Board began to implement its desegregation plan on January 5, 1970. According to the information obtained from a study of integration in Wilkes County by Kathleen Reeves accessed through the University of Georgia archives, the Wilkes County Board of Education’s first meeting on January 5, 1970, was one full of uncertainty for the upcoming school year. Their lack of faith in what was mandated by the federal courts was clearly evident in the board’s minutes in their first discussion on the implementation of the integration that had been ordered.

This was clearly visible with the following minutes statement: “In as much as the Order of the Court was not clearly understood as applied to Wilkes County, the white children being the minority race, it was decided not to move too hastily in developing a plan to eliminate the dual school system. Instead, wait until after the meeting called by the State Department of Education for the purpose of discussion the recent decision of the U.S. District Court. Hopefully this meeting would clarify the decision and at the same time supply answers to some questions needed before a plan can be developed.”

With statements such as these it is visible that Wilkes County was hoping that they would not have to implement an integrated school system and could somehow finagle a way out on the grounds that far as numbers were concerned white children, not black children, were in the minority, therefore, segregation was not a problem or a bad thing in Wilkes County. Either that or they truly wanted to make sure that they did things correctly and in accordance with the court’s orders.

However, more than likely it was a postponement to see if this horrid idea of school integration even applied To Wilkes County. Wilbur Orr, attorney for the Wilkes County Board of Education, found through his investigation that there were no loop holes in the federal court’s mandate for all schools to become integrated and that in order to receive federal funds, Wilkes County must comply with the orders. And so school desegregation in Wilkes County was to begin. After several public meetings with the African-American and white communities, the school board started making the plans necessary to implement a unitary school system by September 1, 1970. In planning for desegregation, the school board used the guidelines established by the federal courts that all schools had to abide by in order to receive their federal funds.

Kathleen Reeves’ study reveals the following guidelines set by the federal court: (1) In each and every school facility, (a) the ratio of faculty and staff assigned to such facility on a fulltime basis is 50 percent to 150 percent of the faculty quotient; system wide personnel are to be counted in such ratio proportionately to the number of schools served; and (b) there exists ‘equality of standards,’ and (c) ‘school activities’ are open to all pupils and faculty and staff, regardless of race;

“(2) three fourths of all pupils in a minority race are enrolled in integrated school facilities as hereinbefore defined for the school year of 1970-71; and each school year thereafter;

“(3) no geographic attendance zone shall be drawn on the basis of race so as to provide that children enrolled in the same grade of one race within such attendance zone attend another school, even though such pupils comprise less than 25 percent of the total enrollment in the district.

“(4) a bona fide plan exists permitting a student attending a school in which his race is in the majority to choose to attend another school, where space is available under the standards enunciated in United States v. Jefferson County, 372 F.2d 836 (5th Cir. 1966) and where his race is in the minority.”

The Wilkes County Board of Education in compliance with the federal court orders began the process of slowly integrating the county school system into a unitary one. “The combination of Washington Elementary and North Wilkes Elementary (black school) in Washington Primary, housing first through third grades, and Washington Elementary with the fourth through sixth grades, and the combining of Washington Junior High with Washington Central High (black school) to create Washington Junior High, with seventh through ninth grades, and the combining of Washington-Wilkes High School with Washington Central High School, with the grades 1012. Shortly after the combining of the schools the principals of these schools are named and they are divided equally among both races with Mrs. Thelma S. McLendon (black) as principal for the primary school, Charles Reid (black), principal for the elementary school, A.E. Scoggins, principal for the junior high, and Dr. Wyatt Grimmer, principal for the high school.

“Although they had divided these positions somewhat equally, it is hard not to notice that both of the black principals were placed with the younger aged school children when Mrs. McLendon had been the principal and Mr. Reid had been the assistant principal of Washington Central High School.”

Send your responses to docdanner@nu-z.net or P.O. Box 1328, Washington, Ga. 30673.

The opinions expressed by this columnist do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of this newspaper.