They Led Theway

They Led theWay The students who desegregated the schools in Florida’s capital went on to be lawyers, teachers, a doctor and a businessman BY Ann Beasley Schierhorn PHOTOS BY David LaBelle TURMOIL OF THE TIME author’s note Civil rights and the schools MAY 7, 1954 • The U.S. Supreme Court rules state laws SEPT. 3, 1963 • Six days later, the Leon County establishing separate schools for blacks Public Schools are integrated by and whites are unconstitutional in Harold Knowles, Marilyn Holifield Brown v. Board of Education. and Phillip Hadley at Leon High School and by Melodee Thompson at Kate SEPT. 4, 1957 • Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus sends the Sullivan Elementary School. Arkansas National Guard to prevent nine black students from integrating Central SEPT. 15, 1963 • The Ku Klux Klan bombs a Birmingham, A story that needed to be told High School in Little Rock. President Ala., church, killing four black girls. Dwight D. Eisenhower intervenes. NOV. 22, 1963 • President Kennedy is assassinated THE BAND PLAYED “DIXIE” to end my first education took us to Rochester, N.Y., Iowa City, Iowa, MARCH 2, 1962 • The Rev. C.K. Steele, Tallahassee civil in Dallas. assembly as a sophomore at Tallahassee’s Leon High and Kent, Ohio. I knew that someday I would return rights leader, and four other parents sue School. Everyone stood up. Reluctantly, I did too. But to Tallahassee to write this story. the Leon County school board, saying the JULY 2, 1964 • Civil Rights Act outlaws racial segregation I wondered about a small group of black students in Carl and I adopted our daughter, Karen, from district is running a dual school system in schools, public places and employment. the back row. What were they feeling as they listened Korea 30 years ago, and when she was a schoolgirl, I in Clifford N. Steele, et al. v. Board of to this relic of the Confederacy? A white student tried to explain what it was like for the students who Public Instruction of Leon County, Fla. SEPT. 1964 • Keith Neyland and Mahlon C. Rhaney, standing in the back let loose with a piercing rebel yell. desegregated the schools. In interviewing the former U.S. District Judge G. Harrold Carswell Jr. integrate Florida High School at FSU. It was chilling. Tallahassee students, I learned that their children rules against the parents, but his decision ANN SCHIERHORN too found it difficult to imagine this era. This project SEPT. 1965 • Rick Williams integrates the new This was 1965. The school had been desegregated is overruled on appeal. The case moves Rickards High School with two other in 1963, but the ritual of “Dixie” survived. The rebel through the federal court system for students, Andre Barnes and yell’s message in the era of the civil rights movement seven years. ‘There were many Tallahassees Vincent Deal. Williams is the first African was as unmistakable as the pickup trucks displaying American to graduate from Rickards. Confederate flag plates and gun racks. in the South – cities that SEPT. 1962 • Elaine Thorpe integrates Blessed For my junior year, I transferred to Florida High Sacrament School, now Trinity Catholic. FALL 1966 • Two percent of Leon County’s black School, the lab school at Florida State University. desegregated without violence There I got to know Keith Neyland and Mahlon APRIL 1, 1963 • The Leon County school board submits students are in integrated schools. but with great sacrifice’ Rhaney, Jr., my classmates who had integrated the a plan to the federal court, calling for 1967–1968 • Old Lincoln High School shuts its doors school two years before. I also met senior Elaine desegregation beginning with the first as a school, one of nine former all- Thorpe, who had preceded me at Leon and then documents the experience of school desegregation to grade in fall 1963. Another grade is to be black schools to close in Leon County. transferred to Florida High, where she was the first help today’s students understand what it was like to added each year. Older students can apply The closings tear up the community black graduate. be there. The stories of those who led the way appear for transfers to new schools. and dislocate black teachers and Theirs was a story that needed to be told – in this magazine and in the exhibit created for the John G. Riley Center/Museum of African American JUNE 11, 1963 • President John F. Kennedy calls for federal administrators, many of whom are theirs and the stories of the students who earlier History and Culture in Tallahassee. legislation on civil rights. The bill that he demoted. desegregated the public schools in Tallahassee. The In interviewing, I learned: submits to Congress is ultimately passed Tallahassee Democrat was a conservative, locally APRIL 4, 1968 • The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. is as the Civil Rights Act of 1964. owned newspaper at that time. It published a separate • All eight students completed college and attended assassinated in Memphis, Tenn. black news section well into the 1960s. The Democrat graduate school. JUNE 12, 1963 • Civil rights leader Medgar Evers is shot covered the governmental aspects of desegregation • Five students have law degrees – two from Harvard. DEC. 12, 1969 • Federal appeals court orders Leon County and killed in Jackson, Miss., by a member and sought to reassure the white community that One has both a medical degree and a law degree. to submit a plan by Feb. 1, 1970, for of the White Citizens’ Council. Tallahassee would not become a Little Rock or Two others have graduate degrees in education. complete desegregation of the schools. Birmingham when faced with school desegregation. • Most of their parents were college-educated, AUG. 28, 1963 • The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers But it did not cover the human stories of the black and many of them had graduate degrees. Three SEPT. 1970 • Eight years after the Steele case his “I Have a Dream” speech in front of students who led the way. of the students had parents who were faculty or was filed, Leon County schools finally the Lincoln Memorial during the March On the day after I graduated from Florida High, administrators at Florida A&M University. All of are fully desegregated. on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. my family moved to Washington, D.C., where my their mothers worked. The march rallies support for Kennedy’s father had taken a new job. I studied journalism at • They call their parents their heroes – strong role civil rights bill and draws attention to See the world of 1963 in photos >> Northwestern University outside Chicago, where I models who were determined to open more doors economic inequality. met my husband, Carl. Our careers in journalism and for their children. [CONTINUED ON PAGE 2] 2 1 • THEY LED THE WAY THEY LED THE WAY • FROM PAGE 1 introduction I have chosen to use “black” in most Table of instances because the former students used it themselves in the interviews. They grew up before “African American” was contents popularized. I also have used “integrate” because it was the term used at that time in Tallahassee. But I often switch to “desegregate,” which is the more commonly understood term today. They led the way 3 Introduction: They led the way Although this is the story of one city’s school desegregation, there were many In September 1963, four African American students walked through 5 September 3, 1963: Tallahassees in the South. These were the the doors of formerly white Leon County public schools in Tallahassee. cities that desegregated without violence Segregation ends in Florida’s capital but with great sacrifice. Their action marked the end of the county’s segregated school system, In telling this story, I was fortunate that Glenda Alice Rabby had chronicled 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation. THEIR STORIES Tallahassee’s civil rights movement in “The 6 Elaine Thorpe Cox Pain and the Promise.” Her book provided ‘I just wanted to be accepted as another human being.’ a solid foundation for this research. Under ownership by Knight 8 Harold Knowles Newspapers and then Gannett Co. Inc., the Democrat began to write about some ‘It was worth the price.’ of the former students when they appeared 12 Marilyn Holifield at events in Tallahassee. Today, it makes a concerted effort to cover the whole ‘The power of the inner spirit can triumph today.’ community. Executive editor Bob Gabordi opened the news library to me and senior 14 Phillip Hadley reporter Gerald Ensley provided historical He gave up football for academics. perspective. My Kent State University colleague 16 In first grade David LaBelle made the compelling portraits of the former students and 18 Melodee Thompson devoted much of a family vacation ‘I enjoy being around people who aren’t like me.’ to do so. I am especially grateful to Althemese 20 Keith Neyland Barnes, director of the Riley Museum, He was first to play varsity football and basketball. for readily accepting my exhibit proposal and for opening the door to several of 22 Mahlon C. Rhaney, Jr. the former students I wanted to reach. I ‘My folks taught us we were as good as anybody.’ traveled to Tallahassee, Orlando, Miami and Atlanta to interview the former 26 C.B. ‘Rick’ Williams students, and I appreciate their trust. HAROLD KNOWLES, ONE OF THE STUDENTS WHO DESEGREGATED LEON HIGH SCHOOL 50 YEARS AGO, RETRACES HIS STEPS. ‘My friends – and family – made life worth living.’ – Ann Beasley Schierhorn The students at Leon High School were taunted with racist This exhibit recognizes these students’ perseverance and that “They Led the Way” ©2013 by Ann B.

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