The Integration of Schools
by
Doris Robinson-Ellington

Situated in an obscure part of town, cut off from the rest of the city by railroad tracks, and surrounded by stock yards and meat packing companies was a umque section of East St. Louis called Goose Hill. Locked in the boundary lines of that unique little neighborhood was a people, a Black people filled with hope, faith, dreams, desires and ambitions that were festering within their hearts and minds like the hot lava in a volcano that was about to erupt. Most of the inhabitants of that neighborhood were immigrants from the South, who brought along with them to the North the warm friendly customs not practiced by most of their city sisters and brothers of color. They were not merely friends and neighbors but family, sharing and supporting each other.

Within that neighborhood was a confectionery located on the corner of Second Street and Bowman Avenue. It was owned and operated by Mr. Robert Perry Storman and was fittingly called Perrys. This corner served as a meeting place for many of the neighborhood youths who played ball for Mr. Storman. A daily exchange of ideas and plans for the future, some of which sounded like pipe dreams, was shared at that location.

It was there at that location around a pot-bellied coal heater in the year 1948 that the idea of school integration was born and implanted into the minds of some of the youngsters who lived on Goose Hill. Richard Taylor and Otis Garrett were present when Mr. Storman stated that, when his daughter Delois completed the eight grade at Carver School, his plan was to enroll her at Rock Jr. High, an all white school much closer to his home than Lincoln High, the all Black school across town. Little did Mr. Storman know that his thoughts of school integration were right on time because chapters of the N.A.A.C.P. were forming protest groups across the nation to vocalize racial unrest over the discriminatory practices against America's Black people.

Foreseeing possible problems and resistance against his plan, Mr. Storman enlisted the support of the local N.A.A.C.P., its president Mr. David Owens, and board members Norvell Hickman and Attorney Billy Jones. On January 31, 1949, these men, along with Mr. Storman, formed a delegation and demanded the registration of seven Black students at East St. Louis Senior High and fourteen at the Rock Jr. High. On the
first day of the attempt the students were led to an empty room where they were left unattended all day. At the end of the day the students and delegation were told by the principals of those schools that no new registrations were being accepted pending directions by the Board of Education. February 1, 1949, the same delegation of students led by Mr. Storm and Attorney Billy Jones appeared for the second day seeking admission to the schools.

I am certain many white organizational meeting had been held the evening before to plan actions to be taken against any further attempts to enroll Black students in the white system. A potentially dangerous scenario developed in February when the bell rang for the first class and word circulated throughout the classrooms that there were Black students in the schools. Several hundred white youngsters led by teachers formed a picket line and marched around the two adjoining schools waving banners and picket signs imprinted with derogatory racial slurs and inflammatory inscriptions. White parents gathered on the side walks outside the school and joined the students in protest. Hundreds of other white students marched through the downtown section of town ending up at City Hall, demanding that the Sheriff's Department go over and put the Black students out of their school.

On that day demonstrations and protest marches popped up all over town almost simultaneously. A white group called the Progressive Party formed a freedom day demonstration at the Board of Education in support of the board's refusal to admit the Black students. Not one group came out in support of the Black students other than the group headed by Mr. Storman. Meeting after meeting was held. The school board met several times in one day in gatherings that were termed, by the board president Bernice Goode, as informal meetings. These informal meetings excluded the one Black member of the board. The lone black member, Mr. Marion Stallings, Sr., was present at only one of those meetings. When he made a motion that the Black students be admitted, his motion, of course, died on the floor for the want of a second.

Up to this point in our history as American Blacks, our strongest organization was the church, but ironically several of the city's best known ministers from the South End rejected the move to enroll Black students in
white schools, describing the attempt as a "rash act and a serious blunder which might do something to close the doors of opportunity in our faces." The same as always the white man's strategic efforts were working:
"Divide and Conquer." Only this time we were not a combined body to separate. That very small number of Goose Hillers stood alone, but they stood together as they had from the start, and the determination of Perry Storman to accomplish his dream would soon become a reality.

The leaders sensed that violence was brewing and become concerned about the safety of the children. Therefore, after four non-productive days the children were withdrawn from the schools, and Lawyer Billy Jones filed what may have been the first lawsuit in the country to integrate public schools. A year later the Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the children, and on January 31, 1950, one hundred Black students were admitted to six schools that previously had been attended by white students only.
14 Cannady Elementary
17 Rock Jr. High
21 East St. Louis Sr. High
28 Webster Elementary School
05 Monroe Elementary School
15 Alta Sita Elementary School
At Franklin Elementary School, which had been all Black, two white students enrolled. This momentous occasion, which effectively integrated all the public schools in Southern Illinois, occurred years before the nationally renowned case of BmwnvsToeka~Kansas~Boar&ofEducation. decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954.

I was in that number at East St. Louis High School and, needless to say, it was not easy. However, most of those students did the Black race proud. They were all high achievers in every aspect of the word. Practically all at the high school came from roots deeply embedded in the Southern Mission Missionary Baptist Church, which was at that time located on "Goose Hill." Wardell Brooks our first Black graduate, set a typing speed record of more than one hundred words per minute his one and only semester at E. St. Louis High. Mr. Brooks is now the Director of Housing in Waukegan, Illinois, and owner and operator of the Day Care Center. Richard Taylor and Ronald Mitchell set tract and field records,
for District 189. Dennis Perry and Delores Storman Ray were our first Black students to be inducted into the National Honor Society. Mrs. Ray is presently the Director of Mental Health, St. Clair County. Mr. Perry is Professor of Microbiology at Northwestern University. Mr. Gus Doss, who was very impressive in basketball, is now assistant principal and athletic director at Custer High School, one of Milwaukee, Wisconsin' s largest. Thomas Little graduated with honors and is now a successful practicing attorney in an East Coast city. Louie Williams, all city athlete, is now a minister and administrator with School District 189. Valletta Smith Howse is a nurse in Springfield, Illinois. Mary Granger Sims, honor student, is now tops in sales at Sears, Roebuck and Company. I am a registered nurse at Barnes Hospital. Many teachers of the Carver School family, such as, Earlie Knockum Foggy, Alfrenia Young Hampton, Vera Bates Washington, John DeShields, John Williams, Ocie Bailey and Helen Wren Brown, are owed a vote of thanks for their dedication and expertise in preparing and equipping those students with good scholastic backgrounds and the self-esteem that was necessary to face those bleak days of the SOs. Many of us have the man with a vision, Mr. Storman, to thank for where we are in our careers today.

 

 

* About the Author

Doris Robinson-Ellington was enrolled at East St. Louis Senior High School during this "first" attempt at integration in East St. Louis.
Presently, she is a registered nurse residing in East St.