The St. Joseph, Missouri, School District in Buchanan County, Missouri, 60 miles north of KC, bordering the State of Kansas on the Missouri River, was the first American school district to desegregate its separate schools, following the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, et.al., decision from the US Supreme Court, on May 17, 1954.
I discerned this fact while reviewing their archival history, when pastoring the now-defunct, Grant Memorial A.M.E. Church, the city's first black church in the early 2000s. I learn the history of wherever I have pastored, for insights into the place's character.
To honor this fact, which had been "hidden beneath a bushel basket," we, Grant Memorial A.M.E. members, presented a commemorative plaque to its Superintendent of schools at the St. Joseph, Missouri, Board of Education meeting. This plaque was later placed by them on their Board room wall in a place of honor in 2004, fifty-years after legal "Jim Crow" segregation was ended in schools.
We did this belatedly to honor and to acknowledge their courage and their commitment to law of those citizens.
We all can say "thank you." Against that simple courtesy there is no law!
Monday, November 3, 2014
FIRST SCHOOL DISTRICT TO DESEGREGATE
FIRST SCHOOL DISTRICT TO DESEGREGATE AFTER "BROWN"
The St. Joseph, Missouri, School District in Buchanan County, Missouri, 60 miles north of KC, bordering the State of Kansas on the Missouri River, was the first American school district to desegregate its separate schools, following the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, et.al., decision from the US Supreme Court, on May 17, 1954.
I discerned this fact while reviewing their archival history, when pastoring the now-defunct, Grant Memorial A.M.E. Church, the city's first black church in the early 2000s. I learn the history of wherever I have pastored, for insights into the place's character.
To honor this fact, which had been "hidden beneath a bushel basket," we, Grant Memorial A.M.E. members, presented a commemorative plaque to its Superintendent of schools at the St. Joseph, Missouri, Board of Education meeting. This plaque was later placed by them on their Board room wall in a place of honor in 2004, fifty-years after legal "Jim Crow" segregation was ended in schools.
We did this belatedly to honor and to acknowledge their courage and their commitment to law of those citizens.
We all can say "thank you." Against that simple courtesy there is no law!
The St. Joseph, Missouri, School District in Buchanan County, Missouri, 60 miles north of KC, bordering the State of Kansas on the Missouri River, was the first American school district to desegregate its separate schools, following the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, et.al., decision from the US Supreme Court, on May 17, 1954.
I discerned this fact while reviewing their archival history, when pastoring the now-defunct, Grant Memorial A.M.E. Church, the city's first black church in the early 2000s. I learn the history of wherever I have pastored, for insights into the place's character.
To honor this fact, which had been "hidden beneath a bushel basket," we, Grant Memorial A.M.E. members, presented a commemorative plaque to its Superintendent of schools at the St. Joseph, Missouri, Board of Education meeting. This plaque was later placed by them on their Board room wall in a place of honor in 2004, fifty-years after legal "Jim Crow" segregation was ended in schools.
We did this belatedly to honor and to acknowledge their courage and their commitment to law of those citizens.
We all can say "thank you." Against that simple courtesy there is no law!