They Ledthe Way

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 • the y led the way the y 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. Schierhorn remarks by classmates who wanted to provoke a fight. They were of their contemporaries who integrated the Catholic school, the 28 With thanks to School of Journalism and Mass Communication lonely because most of their classmates were silent. They faced Florida State University high school and the new Rickards High Kent State University P.O. Box 5190 anger from some of their friends who questioned their decision to School. The students went on to become lawyers, teachers, a 29 Tell us your story Kent, OH 44242-0001 transfer from black schools. businessman and a doctor. Here are their stories. [email protected] The students and their parents wanted the best education they ON THE COVER Photography by David LaBelle used with could get to open more doors for college. They wanted to advance BY Ann Beasley Schierhorn Clockwise from lower left: Keith Neyland, C.B. “Rick” Williams, Melodee Thompson, Mahlon C. permission. the cause of civil rights. PHOTOS BY Rhaney, Jr., Elaine Thorpe Cox, Phillip Hadley, Harold Knowles and Marilyn Holifield. Kent State University provided research support David LaBelle for this project. 2 3 • the y led the way CraftLab Design, Broadview Heights, Ohio the y led the way • SEPTEMBER 3, 1963

Segregation ends in Florida’s capital Look in the lower right-hand corner of the Tallahassee Democrat front page for coverage of the historic local event of the day.

“Three Negro students began On its local section front page, classes at Leon High School this the Democrat published an AP morning without any apparent photo of two black students incidents,” the Democrat reported. entering Leon High School. The Associated Press story on The unidentified students were Florida was even more reassuring: photographed from the back “Not an incident, not so much as and from a distance. Only their a cat-call, was reported as Negro friends would have recognized and white children marched from them as Harold Knowles and their homes for the 1963-1964 Marilyn Holifield. school year.” For these students, there was This is what Tallahassee’s more to the story. civic and school leaders wanted. They expressly did not want the Tallahassee or Florida to have the notoriety of Alabama where Gov. George Wallace ordered state troopers to block integration of a Tuskegee school. That was the top news of the day in the Democrat.

4 5 • the y led the way the y led the way • then now Entered Blessed Kindergarten Sacrament School, teacher, Atlanta, 1962 retired

ELAINE THORPE COX One year before the Leon County public schools were From there, she went to Howard integrated, Elaine Thorpe quietly entered eighth grade University in Washington, D.C. Elaine was a freshman when the Rev. Martin at Blessed Sacrament School, Tallahassee’s all-white Luther King, Jr. was assassinated and parts of the city erupted in riots. She took part Catholic School. At the request of school administrators, in the student protests at the university. she arrived at mid-morning to avoid controversy. Elaine left college after her junior year and married Raymond Cox, who was NOT EVEN HER entering medical school in Philadelphia. FRIENDS KNEW at Leon High School and then at Florida They moved to Atlanta when he began High, the FSU lab school. At Leon, some practicing medicine. After the birth After she had been white students called out the N-word in of their son, Jason, and their divorce, at Blessed Sacrament FLORIDA HIGH, 1966 FLORIDA the hallway. Others spit and threw milk she completed her bachelor’s degree in several days, her father cartons at her in the cafeteria. psychology with a math minor and her told her she could tell HER REACTION TO ‘DIXIE’ master’s in early childhood education at her friends at Florida Georgia State University. A&M University’s lab Elaine was surprised in her first assembly ELAINE THORPE She also received a Montessori teaching school that she had when the white students stood up for the certificate and taught in private and changed schools. One Confederate anthem, “Dixie.” Fellow black public schools for almost 30 years. Before responded: “How dare you! Do you think students Harold Knowles and Phillip her retirement, she was a kindergarten you’re better than us?” Elaine said, “I was Hadley told her to sit down, and she Montessori teacher in one of the few devastated.” did. Her father later told her to stand up. “You’re going to cause more problems,” public school districts in Atlanta to In the eighth grade at Blessed he said. “Someone is going to hurt you.” use the method. In 2007, she received a Sacrament, now Trinity Catholic, she She obeyed him reluctantly. The rebel yell Fulbright-Hays grant for an international hoped to make new friends, but most of following “Dixie” was frightening. “They educational exchange in Singapore and her classmates avoided her. “I felt I was wanted to make us afraid enough to leave,” Malaysia. She developed curriculum the only one in the room, and I just she said. They hated us no matter if black to help kindergartners learn about wanted to be accepted as another people were intelligent, attractive Southeast Asia. human being,” she said. or friendly. It was sad that they needed ABOUT BEING THE FIRST Her father, Edwin Thorpe, was dean to be bullies.” of admissions at FAMU, and her mother, “It was not a happy time for me, but Annette Thorpe, was an English professor. At Florida High, which operated more I felt that I was making a contribution.” Elaine said she believes they felt sending like a private school with a waiting list, a She is glad her son, Jason, didn’t her to Blessed Sacrament was a good way few students reached out to her, and she experience what she did, but she wants to contribute to the cause of integration. was able to participate in extracurricular him to know what his family has been Blessed Sacrament did not have a high activities. She was the accompanist for the through. She believes that her son’s school, so Elaine had to transfer again chorus, a Madrigal singer, a member of knowledge of her experience will help after the ninth grade. The loneliness and the yearbook staff and a member of Future him in his own struggles and “give him isolation she felt at the Catholic school Teachers of America. Elaine was Florida strength to persevere and live his dreams.” continued for the next three years – first, High’s first black graduate in 1967.

6 7 • the y led the way the y led the way • then Entered Leon High School, 1963

now Attorney and partner, Knowles & Randolph, the oldest African American law firm in North Florida. HAROLD Lives in Tallahassee KNOWLES

8 9 • the y led the way the y led the way • ‘It was worth the price’ COURTESY OF HAROLD KNOWLES

stepfather, Erelson Knowles, was a businessman. In the spring and summer of 1963, Christene went door to door helping other black parents fill out forms to request transfers to white schools. She took heat from other teachers, the school board and the superintendent of schools. Right, Harold Knowles and Marilyn Holifield on the But Christene Knowles was a Florida steps of Leon High School in 1963, the year they and Harold Knowles, Marilyn Holifield and A&M University graduate and, Harold Phillip Hadley integrated the school. Harold said their says, “There was no way her son wasn’t parents had the photo made on a Saturday when they Phillip Hadley were the first black students going to college.”

wouldn’t attract attention. LEON HIGH, 1965 Harold went first to DePauw to integrate Leon, the only white public University in Greencastle, Ind., and then “See how skinny I was then,” Harold said. “That’s from high school in the county. Harold had been to Tallahassee Community College. At not eating.” Florida State University, he completed a student at Old Lincoln High School, the his bachelor’s degree in government Below from left, Harold Knowles, Marilyn Holifield and HAROLD KNOWLES county’s black high school. He was tired and earned a law degree. He joined the Dr. Phillip Hadley in 1990. They were invited to speak at NAACP and marched in civil rights Leon 25 years after they graduated. By then they were of using hand-me-down books from Leon and lining demonstrations in Indiana and led black in their early 40s. Harold and Marilyn were lawyers, and student protests at FSU. Later he served Phillip was a physician. He also had a law degree. up in his science classroom to look through the only on the FSU Board of Trustees with former microscope. “Leon was the best school to prepare President J. Stanley Marshall, whose office the black students had occupied during me for college,” he said. the protests. Harold grew up in Bethel Missionary Each morning, as the three black students restroom at Leon for two years. If black Baptist Church, where the minister was got off the bus, a group of white students students sat down in the lunchroom, many the Rev. C.K. Steele, leader of the civil greeted them with racist jokes and catcalls. white students would stand up and leave, rights movement in Tallahassee. Steele, along with the NAACP Legal Defense

TALLAHASSEE DEMOCRAT PHOTOS DEMOCRAT TALLAHASSEE Teachers were posted in the hallways, and and the unsupervised restrooms were Harold could tell they were there to make where troublemakers gathered to smoke. Fund, initiated the 1962 class action suit sure the black students got to their next He always was vigilant. “Fear does that,” by parents to desegregate the schools. classes safely. Even so, the black students he said. In recent years, Harold has helped his were jostled in the halls. The experience was doubly painful church to build affordable homes for 25 families in Frenchtown, a historically black HE WAS ISOLATED because some in the black community resented the students. “You think you are neighborhood near the Florida Governor’s His mother, Christene Knowles, didn’t better,” they would say. “You betrayed us.” Mansion. Economic development is the want the three students lumped together The reaction “cut you to the quick,” new civil rights movement, he says. in all the same classes. Because she Harold said. “We thought we’d be He and his wife, Anne, have a son, wanted Harold to be able to follow his welcomed as gladiators in the black Clayton, who is an attorney with Knowles interests, he didn’t see the other two all community.” & Randolph. day. Marilyn and Phillip were in the same HIS MOTHER WAS AN ACTIVIST ABOUT BEING FIRST assembly, same lunch period and had some classes together. Christene Knowles was a business teacher “It prepared me for going away to college. It was worth the price.” Harold never ate lunch or used a at Old Lincoln High School and Harold’s

10 11 • the y led the way the y led the way • then now Entered Leon High Attorney and partner School, 1963 in Holland & Knight law firm, Miami

MARILYN HOLIFIELD Even though Marilyn Holifield was one of her to apply to Harvard Law School, the first black students at Leon High, she which he also had attended. Her first job after law school was LEON HIGH, 1965 says her parents were the real trailblazers. assistant counsel with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. She worked as general Her father, Bishop Holifield, was the counsel to the New York Division for first African American to work as a soil Youth and was a federal appellate law clerk MARILYN before joining Holland & Knight law firm HOLIFIELD conservation agent for the U.S. Department in 1981. of Agriculture in Florida. Her mother, Millicent Holifield, She was the first African American lawyer at Holland & Knight, an established a program at Lincoln High School to train international law firm that traces its Florida origins to the late 1890s. Later young black women as licensed practical nurses. at Holland & Knight, she became the first black female partner in a major law When she transferred from FAMU the crowd. “You should know that during firm in Florida and was chosen the firm’s High to Leon, she left the university my years at Leon, one or two reached out outstanding attorney of the year. Black campus where she had grown up taking to be my friend.” Enterprise magazine named her as one classes in art and dance and attending She transferred to Leon to take science of nation’s top employment lawyers. She concerts and football games. At Leon, and math courses that weren’t available is passionate about encouraging young the three students were discouraged from in the black schools. She also wanted to people to reach for higher goals than they participating in extracurricular activities. honor civil rights activists like Dr. Martin imagined. She said, “The power of the She belonged to the Spanish Club and Luther King, Jr. by going to the school inner spirit can triumph today.” Phillip joined the French Club. Those are where the district spent twice as much as it ABOUT BEING FIRST the only group photos where they appear did on black schools. “I did it to bring Leon High School and in their senior yearbook. A TURNING POINT Tallahassee closer to a democracy. I did it RETURNING TO LEON She was in the auditorium in November to honor those who had struggled before Today she doesn’t like to talk about the 1963 when some classmates cheered me. I did it to make a path for those who hardships she endured at Leon, saying it the announcement that President John would come after me.“ was a small part of her life. But in a 1990 F. Kennedy had been assassinated. That speech at the school, she remembered the solidified her determination to get away isolation there. “It was not having friends from Tallahassee. Her brother Edward to compare notes or exchange ideas – suggested Swarthmore College near unless Phillip or Harold happened to be Philadelphia, where she received her around,” she said. She encouraged these bachelor’s degree in economics. When she students to think before going along with graduated, her brother Bishop encouraged

13 the y led the way • then now Entered Leon High Physician in School, 1963 suburban Atlanta

PHILLIP HADLEY Phillip Hadley was going to be Old Lincoln DREAMED OF BEING A DOCTOR Phillip’s goal was to get into Florida State High School’s football quarterback and University and then medical school. He LEON HIGH, 1965 student council vice president in his junior had wanted to be a doctor since he was “knee-high to a gnat.” At Leon, he had year, but he gave those up to transfer textbooks that were up-to-date and classes to Leon High School. “I was about that covered more material. He graduated PHILLIP HADLEY in the top 10 percent of his class and academics,” he said. At Leon, Phillip entered FSU in 1965, when there were only 13 full-time black students out of the was advised against going out for football because of 10,000 enrolled at the university. hostility, and he knew he would be especially vulnerable He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in criminology and a commission as a as a quarterback dependent on team members for second lieutenant in the U. S. Army. One protection on the field. ‘” I didn’t want to get killed in of his professors suggested he get a law degree, which he did later in life. practice,“ he said. He entered the University of Florida Medical School in 1970, the same year the This was his second experience integrating was taken to the office of principal Robert first black medical students graduated. In a school – he had been one of 13 students Stevens. The student who had been med school, he spent a rotation with Dr. to integrate Ft. Lauderdale Everglades taunting Phillip since he arrived at Leon Alexander Brickler, who served the black Junior High School. In high school, he “did not say one word for the rest of the community in Tallahassee and, with him, was living east of Tallahassee off Paul year,” Phillip said. delivered his first baby. Since then, as an Russell Road with his grandmother, Outside of school he encountered the obstetrician-gynecologist, he has delivered Alberta McClendon, and his aunt, Lillie harassment other blacks in the community more than 5,000 babies. “With every baby, McClendon. Both had a large role in were dealing with each day. Once as he I am always in awe of God and his work.” raising him. He also consulted his father, was getting a snack at a gas station during LOOKING BACK Lloyd, a teacher in Ft. Lauderdale, who a walk home from school, a car with four Younger African Americans need to have backed his choice to transfer to Leon. or five young white men drove up next to some idea of history and what a struggle it At Leon, Phillip faced catcalls and him. “A pistol came out and bam-bam- was, he said. “They should never take for twice was slugged by a white student bam,” Phillip said. He looked at his chest granted all that they have. Life is so much in a hallway. to see if he was bleeding. Then he realized better for them now. “ The second time it happened, he said, he had been shot at with blanks. “It could “I dropped my books and squared off.” have been real bullets.” Teachers intervened and the white student

14 15 • the y led the way the y led the way • In first grade Melodee Thompson was in a class of 32 first graders at Kate Sullivan Elementary School in fall 1963. Her experience was different from that of the three older black students who desegregated Leon in same year.

She attributes that to the age of her classmates and the efforts of her teacher, Virginia Shebel, who was chosen or volunteered for the job because she was not originally from Tallahassee. Melodee was the first black student to attend formerly white schools from first grade through high school graduation. Her school years marked the transition from segregation to full desegregation in the Leon County public schools.

The central building of Kate Sullivan School looks much the same as it did when Melodee Thompson entered first grade. Her class planted pine seedlings that grew into the tall trees in front of the school.

16 17 • the y led the way the y led the way • then now Entered Kate Sullivan Teaches Spanish to Elementary School, high school students. 1963 Lives in Tallahassee

MELODEE THOMPSON

Lee Thompson, a senior at Old Lincoln High, walked of her classmates. This fascinated her his 6-year-old sister, Melodee, into Kate Sullivan mother’s friends, who would ask her to say the Pledge of Allegiance to they could Elementary School to start first grade. Their mother, hear her Southern drawl. When Melodee was in second Rosa Thompson, waited in their car down the street. grade, another black student entered as Melodee was the first and only black student to attend a first grader. They were the only two black students the formerly all-white school that year. While Lee always in the school until Melodee was in fourth had gone to segregated schools, she never would. grade. Then a large number of African American students entered Kate Sullivan. Melodee went to Elizabeth Cobb At first, Melodee school, when she was 5, a year earlier than Middle School and then to Leon, where was a curiosity at permitted. Melodee attended school there she took Spanish, French and German. By Kate Sullivan, but for a month, she said, “but they caught the time she graduated from Leon in 1975, she found first grade me.” So the next year, when Leon County the schools were completely desegregated. students just wanted schools were to be integrated in the She earned bachelor’s degrees in English to play. She has fond first grade, Rosa enrolled Melodee in and Spanish from FSU and took graduate memories of her first Kate Sullivan. courses at the University of Salamanca, MELODEE grade teacher, who School buses were still segregated. After Spain. She has taught English at Fairview THOMPSON brought a television the first day, Melodee traveled by bus Middle School and Spanish at Rickards set into the classroom to Lincoln High School with her sister, High School and Florida Virtual School. so the students could watch “Senorita Bonnie, and then rode another bus with For a semester, she taught in Mexico as Maria” on WFSU. She fell in love the three black high school students going part of a Fulbright Teacher’s Exchange. with Spanish. to Leon. After they were dropped off, the ABOUT BEING FIRST HER MOTHER WAS DETERMINED driver took her alone the last few blocks to “I am thankful to have had the experience. Kate Sullivan. Melodee lived on Mahan Drive east of It taught me how to deal with situations A few students taunted her, but she was Tallahassee. Her mother, Rosa, worked as with race, to see differences and not to see not harassed as the high school students a maid when Melodee started first grade every opposition as racist. I enjoy knowing were. One boy told her his mother had and later operated a day care center. Her and experiencing being around people who cut her out of a classroom photo. She told father, John, always worked two jobs. He aren’t like me.” him, “So what?” was a custodian for the city of Tallahassee and for FSU. Rosa fought to get a good FITTING IN education for Melodee. She had enrolled Melodee, who previously had used black her in Barrow Hill, an all-black elementary dialect, adapted to the speech pattern

19 the y led the way • then now Entered Florida High Lawyer and instructor, School, 1964 FAMU College of Law, Orlando KEITH NEYLAND The year after the Leon County Public Schools were him. As a fight broke out on the floor, integrated, FAMU history Professor Leedell Neyland someone grabbed him from behind in a bear hug. It was Coach Bob Albertson, went to see the administrator of FSU’s Florida High protecting him. “He was a great guy,” Keith said. School and told him it was time to integrate the school. The University of Pittsburgh gave him He applied for his son, Keith, to transfer from FAMU’s lab a full scholarship to play football, but because of an injury in his senior year of school as a freshman. When the administrator agreed, high school, he never played. He earned Leedell Neyland said, “I’m not going to send him alone.” his bachelor’s degree in history and a law degree at Pitt. He has spent most of his career in Pittsburgh as an arbitrator for The administrator said managing editor of the student newspaper U.S. Steel Corp./ U.S. Steelworkers union Keith could choose as a senior. and as director of human resources for whomever he wanted The two friends had been athletes Holy Family Institute, a Catholic charity.

FLORIDA HIGH, 1968 FLORIDA to accompany him. He as well as top students at FAMU lab Keith and his former wife, Carol Awkard asked his good friend, school, but they were told not to go out Neyland, have one daughter, Lindsey. He Mahlon Rhaney. for football or basketball. Florida High now teaches employment law and helps Keith said some of administrators said, “We can’t be sure we FAMU students prepare for the bar exam. KEITH NEYLAND their experiences can protect you.” To this day, he said he feels self- were degrading and By sophomore year, Keith was running conscious. He had to be perfect in humiliating. track and playing basketball for Florida high school. Keith’s mother, High. After he won the 440-yard dash in He regrets what he perceives he Della Neyland, taught the state championship, the football coach missed at FAMU High and being resented kindergarten at the told Keith the players had voted to ask by people at FAMU. But the decision FAMU lab school and him to go out for the team. He agreed and was his father’s idea and he didn’t doubt

TALLAHASSEE DEMOCRAT PHOTO DEMOCRAT TALLAHASSEE Mahlon’s parents were was, he believes, the first black student to his judgment. educators, too. But integrate varsity football and basketball in “It was incredibly beneficial because LEEDELL many students Florida north Florida. “I was a novelty – the star we don’t live in a homogeneous society,” NEYLAND High stereotyped of the show whether I wanted to be or not. he said. them. “Some students didn’t understand I never felt totally a part of it.” TO TODAY’S STUDENTS His worst experience was playing in why we spoke decent English,” he said. “Appreciate the sacrifices and the gains small towns like Monticello, 26 miles “Some students were incredibly nice to us. you have made on the backs of others.” Most were neutral.” from Tallahassee. “It was unbelievable.” Over his desk is a poster of Jackie Both Keith and Mahlon excelled in At a basketball game in the high school Robinson, the first African American to the classroom at Florida High and were gym, he could hear students in the stands play major league baseball. selected for the National Honor Society. make demeaning comments about him. Keith joined the Key Club, a boys’ service Then spitballs started raining down on the club, during his sophomore year and was bench, and his teammates slid away from

21 the y led the way • then Entered Florida High School, 1964

now Senior Vice President, Benton-Georgia LLC, MAHLON C. Atlanta RHANEY, JR.

22 23 • the y led the way the y led the way • “Our folks were determined that we’d have it better than they did,” Mahlon said.

His father, Mahlon C. Rhaney, Sr., left, grew up in Brunswick,

TALLAHASSEE DEMOCRAT PHOTO DEMOCRAT TALLAHASSEE Ga., and lost both of his parents by the time he was 18. After working his way through Dillard University in New Orleans, he earned his doctorate in zoology at the University of Michigan. He returned to the South to teach. When his sons were ‘They taught us we were teenagers, he was dean of arts as good as anybody’ and sciences at FAMU. Mahlon said, “We were taught that knowledge and character were most important.”

Mahlon Rhaney and Keith Neyland began their freshman all first-year students faced relentless starting over again and excited about His father expected a lot and filtered a lot of racism, Mahlon said. He urged year at Florida High eating their sack lunches outdoors hazing from older cadets. “Everybody was the possibilities. I’m feeling kind of his children: “Do the right thing and be the best you can be. Everything else hazed. It was merciless.” young again.” will take care of itself.” behind the gym to avoid name-calling and hostile After he graduated from the academy Mahlon often goes by the nickname with a bachelor’s degree in political science, “Mack,” which he adopted in the Air Force. If that didn’t work, he told them, “Use that as the motivation to do comments from other students in the lunchroom. he knew he wanted to be a lawyer: “I’ve He and his wife, Kathleen, have four something positive.” always had a soft spot in my heart for children: Ryan and Cory Manning, her “What are you doing about his own work at FAMU, “I don’t people who needed help. I thought I could sons by a previous marriage, and their son, here? Go home,” some teach black biology. I teach biology.” One make a difference.” Mahlon III, and daughter, Christina. students would say to Florida High teacher, impressed by their A MILITARY LAWYER HIS HOPE FOR HIS CHILDREN

FLORIDA HIGH, 1968 FLORIDA them. “After a while,” academic achievement, asked Mahlon if He received his law degree from Harvard He wants them to understand where Mahlon said, “they he and Keith had attended a prep school University and was stationed at Norton they came from. “I want each of them figured out that we in the North. Air Force Base in San Bernardino, Calif., to be a good person, tell the truth and were not going away, After a rough beginning at Florida where he was a prosecutor in the military represent themselves in a positive manner. and it got better.” High, Mahlon made new friends and said court-martial system. He then was based Remember you do have an obligation to MAHLON C. he found “some of the people were super.” RHANEY, JR. His father, Mahlon in in Germany as a prosecutor and defense your parents and to represent black HIGH SCHOOL YEARBOOK, 1967 FLORIDA C. Rhaney, Sr., was Others remained not very friendly. counsel for airmen accused in drug, people in a positive manner. Show people dean of arts and sciences at FAMU when RACIST CHEERS murder and rape cases or facing revocation we are OK.” his son got the chance to go to FSU’s By the time Mahlon was a junior, he was of their pilots’ licenses. He retired from the TO TODAY’S STUDENTS Florida High School. His mother, Pilar playing both baseball and basketball, and Air Force as a captain after 11 years. “Be positive. You could be whatever you Rhaney, who was from Cuba, taught so was his brother, Mike, a sophomore. He After his military service, he joined an want to. Don’t let race be a handicap that Spanish at Lincoln High School. Mahlon’s remembers the away basketball games in Atlanta law firm, where he represented you put on yourself.” father consulted with his friend and small towns as “horrible” because of the contractors. He then started a construction neighbor, legendary FAMU football coach racist cheers. “At times it was amusing – company with a friend and worked for LOOKING BACK Jake Gaither, who encouraged him to send their hatred and ignorance,” he said. “It himself for almost 20 years. “I don’t know if I would have gotten into his son to Florida High. made us determined to do better.” Just before the recession, he built a $20 the Air Force Academy if I hadn’t gone to “Dad felt it was time for something Back row left, Mahlon C. Rhaney, Jr.; back row right, Keith Neyland; front row Coach Gaither influenced Mahlon’s million plant as he expanded into highway Florida High. The multiracial environment to happen, and I didn’t know any right, Mike Rhaney. Coach Bob Albertson encouraged them to join the team, career path again when he encouraged construction and manufacturing sound has made it easier since.” better,” Mahlon said wryly. “My folks but opposing fans at away games taunted them. U.S. Sen. George Smathers of Florida walls. The business was dissolved in 2010, felt education was very important. They to nominate Mahlon for the Air Force and he now works as senior vice president taught us that we were as good as anybody, Academy. Mahlon was accepted and was of Benton-Georgia LLC, an Atlanta and this was the opportunity to prove it.” one of about 16 blacks in a class of 1,280. company that builds natural gas pipelines. FAMU High had prepared him well “It was as bad as Florida High School from It is the second largest minority-owned academically and he felt ready to compete a racial standpoint,” he said. In addition, construction company in the country. “I’m at Florida High. As his father liked to say

24 25 • the y led the way the y led the way • then now Entered Rickards Administrator for High School, 1965 Leon County Schools

C.B. ‘RICK’ WILLIAMS A total of 32 black students attended formerly flat tires. For the rest of the year, he circled white schools by fall 1965. One of those was the car before driving away. When he graduated, “my daddy gave Clarence Bowen Williams III. His friends call him Rick. me a choice of Tuskegee, Tuskegee or Tuskegee,” he said. “I had a really, really, really good time there. Then my daddy Rick Williams On the first day, at least one of his parked his car next to the dorm and told transferred to Rickards teachers didn’t know his class was being me, ‘Put your clothes in the car. You’re as a junior and became integrated. When Rick showed up for RICKARDS, 1967 RICKARDS, going home.’ ” the first black student social studies, the teacher met him at the He settled down as a student and to graduate from the door and said, “You just go walk outside finished his bachelor’s and master’s degrees new high school. The a little while. I need to talk to this class.” in math education at FAMU, where he former middle school Rick said the students behaved that day also was certified in educational leadership. had been converted and for the rest of the semester. RICK WILLIAMS Rick began his 40-year career with Leon into a high school by He said the teachers had control in County Schools by teaching math at adding one grade a year. all his classes. Outside the classroom the Bellevue Middle School and has served as other students made life more difficult He was one of three students who assistant principal of four middle schools. with name-calling and pranks. “I ate by integrated Rickards High in 1965. The He is now coordinator for Intervention, myself all my first year,” he said, “because others were Vincent Deal, a sophomore, Equity and Support Services. if you sat down, they’d get up.” By his and Andre Barnes, a freshman. Because Rick and his wife, Bonita, have been senior year, about 50 black students were he was older, Rick never had classes married for 40 years. He has three sons: attending the high school, and he joined a with them. Juan Williams, from a relationship before group of seven or eight for lunch every day. NOT LEARNING ENOUGH he was married, and two sons from his MOTORCYCLE TROUBLE His father, C.B. Williams, Jr., was a marriage, Clarence B. Williams IV graduate of Tuskegee Institute and In his first year, other students regularly and Swinton Williams, who died in a master plumber who worked in air disabled Rick’s Honda 50 motorcycle. an accident. conditioning and refrigeration. His “Every day I had to call my daddy to come LOOKING BACK get it started because they did something mother, Dollie Williams, was a registered Rick said the maturity he gained at to it,” he said. Eventually, the principal nurse and a FAMU graduate. Rick’s father boarding school helped him keep his solved the problem by moving the decided he wasn’t learning enough in temper amid the name-calling. And he motorcycle parking so it was right outside Tallahassee’s segregated schools and sent said, “I was able to keep the core of my his office window. him to Boggs Academy, a black boarding friends. Some went to Leon, and they school in Georgia, for his first two years of For Rick’s senior year, his father gave – and family – made life worth living. high school. Then as the upper grades were him a 1955 Chevrolet. On the first day he School was not a place we enjoyed. added at Rickards, he told Rick, “That’s drove it, someone put boards with nails We’d go to school for 3:15 – to get out where you are going to school.” under the parked car. After Rick backed when the bell rang.” out of the parking space, his car had four

26 27 • the y led the way the y led the way • acknowledgments WERE YOU THERE? Tell us your story Share your experiences with the John G. Riley House Center/Museum of African American History and Culture in Tallahassee. Send to [email protected] and [email protected]. WITH THANKS TO:

Althemese Barnes, Director of John G. Riley Center/ Museum of African American History and Culture

Kent State University:

Director Thor Wasbotten, School of Journalism and Mass Communication ALTHEMESE BARNES Dean Stanley T. Wearden, College of Communication and Information

Vice President Alfreda Brown, Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

University Research Council

Executive editor Bob Gabordi and senior writer From left, Elaine Thorpe Cox, Melodee Thompson, Mahlon C. Rhaney, Jr. and C.B. “Rick” Williams recalled their experiences for Gerald Ensley of the Tallahassee Democrat visitors at the opening reception of “They Led the Way” at the Riley Museum. Harold Knowles and Keith Neyland also attended and shared their stories. J. Stanley Marshall, president of Florida State University, 1969-1976

Glenda Alice Rabby, author of “The Pain and the Promise: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Tallahassee, Fla.” The exhibit, “They Led the Way,” was created by Ann Beasley Schierhorn, Robert G. Richards, director of archival operations, professor of Journalism and Mass Communication at Kent State University the National Archives at Atlanta who grew up in Tallahassee. She attended Leon High and graduated from Florida High in 1968. Robert F. Sanchez, teacher at Florida High School during integration who knew many of the students. Now policy director, the James Madison Institute.

Kate Sullivan Elementary School

LeRoy Collins Leon County Public Library The exhibit features the photography of David LaBelle, nationally known photojournalist who is director of the photojournalism program at Kent State.

28 • the y led the way Elaine Thorpe Cox, center, reads the story of Marilyn Holifield’s experience with her mother, Annette Thorpe, and Marilyn’s brother, Edward Holifield. The exhibit, “They Led the Way,” will be on display through February 2014 at the John G. Riley House Center/Museum of African American History and Culture in Tallahassee. It then will travel to other museums.

‘I just wanted to be accepted as another human being’

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