Big changes have come to public schools before

By Alonzo Weston

I had coffee with a couple of retired newspaper friends the other day at Hazel’s Downtown. After we got caught up on what our former News-Press colleagues were up to now, our conversation turned to our fair city. St. Joseph still has its charm as well as its problems but we found that overall it’s still a good place to live and work.

We also have an exemplary history here along with some serious tragedies and horrific events like a lynching in the 1930s. That bit of history seems to get more play than the fact that we also were the first school district to integrate our public schools in 1954.

Integration came early here because of our school calendar year. However, we didn’t have the racial strife and problems other districts around the country did. A big reason for that was the fact that our city was integrated then. We lived next door and played with kids of other races. Our neighborhoods were a mix of black, white, brown, rich and poor. Going to school with other races wasn’t a problem because we knew each other.

The Black Archives has this information on display but I don’t think it gets a big enough importance. We were the first to integrate schools and it went smoothly.

The 1954 integration law did not fully integrate all schools. For the first five years of my schooling, I went to an all-Black school with Black teachers and principal.

Horace Mann had a couple of white principals before busing in 1967 caused it to fully integrate the students. When white kids were bused from nearby Neely and Everett schools and Black kids were bused to these schools, that went smoothly too. Some of those kids are my friends today.

I think of this as there is talk of building two new high schools. There will be no Central, Benton and Lafayette, just north and south high schools supposedly.

I fear this town is too tribal for this change. Diehard Benton, Central and Lafayette alumni will be enraged if their school closes. I don’t think it fazes the kids who it will affect at all. In fact, I bet they like it.

Change takes patience and willingness. We did it before. We can change again if need be.