TEXARKANA, Ark. - Booker T. Washington High School will commemorate the end of segregated public schools this week with events scheduled for their fiftieth class reunion.
Members of the 1969 graduating class, the last class to graduate from the all-black high school, will hold events Thursday through Sunday for both the 1969 class and other BTW alumni.
Lem Ross, event organizer and 1969 alumni, said they didn't realize the significance of their senior year at BTW, as they were not told they would be the last class to graduate from the school.
"I was not very conscious about it," he said. "My main concern was getting out. The reality impacted me at the college level. When I went to Texarkana College, there was a major culture shock."
He went on to transfer to Henderson State University, which was still predominantly white at that time.
"I focused on what I hand to do and where I was going and worked to establish good relationships," he said.
Ross graduated with a degree in physical education and recreation and a minor in social studies. He returned to Texarkana to do his practice teaching at Arkansas High, which was fully integrated following the closure of BTW.
"It was mind-blowing that I was teaching at a school I wasn't allowed to attend," he said of coaching there and later at Redwater High School, Texas High and again at Arkansas High. He said that during that time, people became more accepting of African-American teachers, coaches and students.
"Students were students to me," he said. "I was open-minded and committed to helping them learn and grow."
Donald Nelson, a BTW graduate and teacher who later became the first and only black principal at Arkansas High, said integration was something that he didn't see happening while he was in school.
"At that time, there was no friction," he said of attending BTW. "We knew our places at that time. We saw no hope of ever being integrated and assumed these were our places."
On May 17, 1954, Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas ended segregation, but it took 15 years to integrate the schools. This was happening in the background while Nelson was going to college. He earned his master's degree from Henderson State and began to teach at BTW in 1961.
"I was surprised they had not integrated by then," he said. Following integration, he transferred to Arkansas High, where he taught history and political science. The transition wasn't easy, Nelson said. There were riots. Black students who were now required to attend Arkansas High had lost their leadership roles in their classes and their school mascot. White students didn't want black teachers or classmates, he said, but he worked to help change that perception.
"The overall concept for white students is they had been brainwashed that black teachers were inferior," Nelson said. "They refused to allow black teachers to teach English. I had to continuously say to the white students 'You're not dealing with a rookie.' I had to impress I was was competent."
That competence took him to later become assistant principal at Arkansas High, the principal and then to work in the Central Office.
Nelson said the state and the school district did not do proper preparation for integration.
"I am of the opinion they did not prepare for integration because they didn't think it would last," he said. "I believe they thought it would last for two or three years and then things would go back to the way they were. In hindsight, preparing for it would have made it much smoother."
All BTW alumni are welcome to attend the week's events, which include:
Thursday, Meet and Greet at 6 p.m., Best Western Inn and Suites, 5219 Crossroads Parkway.
Friday, Picnic from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the cafeteria of Washington Academy Charter School, 1900 Marietta Street.
Saturday, Banquet at 6 p.m. in the cafeteria of Arkansas High School, 1500 Jefferson Ave.
Sunday, church services at 10:30 a.m. at Tower of Power Ministries, 1500 Kline Street.
For tickets and more information on these events, call Ross at 903-280-0561 or Shermish Lewis at 903-244-6179.