Week 37 – Education – We Lost Our Schools
“to many, Brown v. Board of Education — handed down May 17, 1954 – was …a dirge for something precious and irreplaceable: a network of black schools almost sacred to those they served and wholly devoted in their belief in black ability and pursuit of black advancement.”
“Brown was turned against us. We lost our schools,” says Elias Black Jr., who graduated in 1947 from Risley High School in Brunswick Ga and credits it with transforming him from an indifferent student with sights set no higher than a job at a local hotel, into someone who became valedictorian of his college class, and ultimately President of Clark College in Atlanta. (Tilove)
Risley alumna Thomas summarized it in her interview with Dr. Montford:
I have known about Risley (all my life). All of my family graduated from Risley…All your life you dreamed about attending Risley. Graduating from Risley and that was the way of life we knew. All the extra curricula and appreciate the activities. All the social life.
Everything about Risley was appealing to everybody and folk wanted to be a part of it. When they told us in 1969 that they were closing the door, it was a sad day. We wanted to stay here and graduate (last class 1970). I lived directly across the street from the school…We saw all the activities. You knew about life at Risley. Once the high school life was over it devastated the community because we wanted to be there.
These were schools of unstinting discipline, order and respect. Of committed teachers and the most keen and caring mentorship. Of high and unyielding expectations… “People assumed you were first rate.” And then the schools closed.
Sources:
Richard R. Wright, 1894,
“A Brief Historical Sketch of Negro Education in Georgia” to the State Teachers of Georgia. which organization has Done so Much to Encourage the Cause of Education in the State. Entered according to Act of Congress, 1894, by Richard R. Wright, A.M. [President of Georgia State Industrial College for Colored Youth] in the office of the Librarian, Washington, D.C.
Black America Series “Glynn County Georgia’ by Benjamin Allen, Arcadia, 2003
Shoundra Lee, Brunswick News, May 8, 2001, updated Oct. 27, 2014
Jonathan Tilove, “In Black Schools Before Brown, Keys to Success” April 28, 2004 published at www. jonathantilovee.com
Anna Alexander, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Alexander and
www.Deaconessalexander.georgiaepiscopal.com
1900 Census, Sea Island, Georgia in www.ancestry.com
Brandee A. Thomas, Two men hold ‘firsts’ in their fields, Brunswick News, Mar 3, 2008
Dr. Hector Montford https://risleyhigh.omeka.net/
Oral history interviews by students focused on the African American experience in Brunswick in the 1950s and 1960s and a photo digitization project for the Risley Alumni Association.
Dr. Hector Montford, Assistant Professor of History Program Coordinator, American Studies BA Program, History and Political Science Concentration, College of Coastal Georgia
Savannah Tribune, Three articles “In Observance of American Education Week, November 12, 1953:
William A. Early, Supt. Of Schools, “Public Schools are the Yardstick for Community’s Strength and Progress.”
Ortha Douglas, Principal, Beach High School [Savannah] “School and Home Must Cooperate”
J.S. Wilkerson, [Principal, Risley High School] “Good Schools are Your Responsibility”
Dr. Melanie Pavich
Oral history interviews by Mercer University students Jocelyn King (Berthenia Gibson), Tammy Wages (Rosalind Venita Sheppard, March 8, 2014), and Tammy Wages (Levi Baisden, Ralph Baisden III (Junior?) March 14, 2015.