5.01.2004

Brown vs. The Board of Education 50th anniversary

       

Athens Clarke County Celebrates the 50th anniversary of Brown vs. the Board of Education
Sunday, May 23, 2004 3:00 p.m.
Athens-Clarke County Library

A Screening-A Community Dialogue-A Chance to Preserve and Capture Wisdom and Memories

In 1972, as school districts in the North were coping with violent opposition to school desegregation via busing, Westinghouse Television's Group W Urban America Unit broadcast a documentary about the comparatively peaceful process of school desegregation in three Southern cities: Greenville, SC; Charlotte, NC, and Athens, GA. Our Brown commemoration will begin with a screening of the Athens segment of The Search for Quality Education - Busing: Some Voices from the South. The documentary, which is part of the University of Georgia Libraries' Peabody Awards Collection, features comments by UGA's Dean William Tate, Clarke County Board of Education attorney Eugene Epting, and Clarke County School Superintendent Charles McDaniel. A segment focusing on Oglethorpe Avenue School includes an interview with Principal Estelle Farmer, footage of Bridget Withers' 4th grade class, and scenes from an Oglethorpe PTA meeting. The program also includes comments by Clarke High School classmates Jan Pulliam, who is Anglo-American, and Leo Scott, who is African American.

Following the screening, we will have a panel conversation featuring:

Monica Knight -Director of the Clarke County School District’s 20th Century Community Learning Centers, Ms. Knight is a Ph.D. candidate in the Social Foundations of Education department.

Evelyn Neeley -- Mrs. Neeley is an Athens area community activist and youth advocate. She is the recipient of the 2002 Athens Woman of Distinction Award and a 2004 "Fulfilling the Dream" award.

Dr. Robert A. Pratt -a UGA professor who specializes in African?American and Southern history, with an emphasis on school desegregation and the civil rights movement, Dr. Pratt is the author of The Color of Their Skin: Education and Race in Richmond, Virginia, 1954-89 (Virginia, 1992) and We Shall Not Be Moved: The Desegregation of the University of Georgia (University of Georgia Press, 2002). He received a "Fulfilling the Dream" award in January 2004 in recognition of his contributions to the community.

Leo Scott -Appearing as a high school student in Busing: Some Voices from the South, Mr. Scott is currently Director of operations and custodial services for the Clarke County School District. Howard Stroud -- Mr. Stroud is a former Clarke County School District Associate Superintendent. The fact that a Clarke County School District teaching excellence award is named in his honor stands tribute to Mr. Stroud's years of service to our community.

Audience members will be asked to participate in the conversation, and to help us in identifying the people shown in the video.

You can help us with this project! Please help us identify the people shown in the video. You can do this by attending the May 23 event, by visiting the display at the Athens Clarke County Library, or online, by following this link to view selected stills from the video.



The Peabody Awards Collection is a rich resource for the study of education for African Americans. It contains both national and locally-produced programs and includes comprehensive overviews as well as locally-produced programs focused on school desegregation in twenty-two states and the District of Columbia.

Learn more about these videos, and about other resources on these topics.

Event sponsors:
The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia Libraries
The Athens-Clarke County Library
The University of Georgia Office of Institutional Diversity

Photos from "The Search for Quality Education"

       The Desegregation of Clarke County Schools is an oral history project conducted by the Heritage Room of the Clarke County Library. The project's goal is the collection and preservation of the memories of teachers and students who were involved in the desegregation of Clarke County Schools in the 1960s and 1970s. As part of our commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Brown decision, we would like to identify the students and parents featured in the 1972 video, The Search for Quality Education - Busing: Some Voices from the South, and to invite them to be a part of this historic project.

Please help us! If you recognize any of the people shown below, please let us know by emailing Laura Carter at the Athens Clarke County Library or Mary Miller at the Peabody Awards Collection.

All video stills are property of Group W Cable Urban America Unit.

Oglethorpe Avenue School 4th grade students





























Oglethorpe Avenue School PTA members