THIS DAY IN HISTORY: Schools and Integration

On a recent trip to Greenville, SC I posed with "students" at Sterling High School - the first black school in Greenville County.  This memorial sits at the corner where a Woolworth store once stood.  If you read the historical markers below you will see that students at Sterling High held demonstrations that led to changes in racial policies in Greenville, including integrating the Woolworth's lunch counter, seating on buses and other public places.

Cick on the images to better read the story of Sterling High School,

The leaders it nurtured,

and their contributions to civil rights.

On May 17, 1954 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregationin public educational facilities was unconstitutional.

But it would take a decade and more for all the states to integrate their school systems. I have a friend (white) who remembers being sent to kindergarten in 1966 at a school that had been for blacks. Kathy tells me her most vivid memory is of the photographers and policemen at the school that morning.

That was just a mile or two from where I live in North Carolina but something similar must have played out at schools across the south in the mid-sixties.

And how many cities have a school similar to Sterling High School where blacks graduated, became the first in their field, or led the local struggle for civil rights?