How the Minimum Foundation Program transformed the state, Part III

The Minimum Foundation Program is here for you.

Now how do you improve your schools?

Eugene Cook’s high school football segregation fit

Most basic American history books point to a handful of big cases involving the rights of African-Americans.

There’s the Dred Scott decision. Voting rights established in the Constitution and the couple of Supreme Court cases where you can actually remember both sides: Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) and Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kan. (1954).

Plessy v. Ferguson is commonly attributed as being the court case that established “separate but equal.” The latter, the Brown case, is supposed to have ended segregation entirely.

Of course, history is not as plain as that or as easy to enforce.

Watch your step

School playgrounds can be hazardous.

There are the usual hassles of equipment: tall metal slides, monkey bars, boys swinging as high as possible and jumping out of the seats.

There are also unexpected hazards.

A quick hit from the recommendations for Dallas Grammar School faculty in 1955:

“(f) The fact that there is an electrically charged fence bordering on the school grounds was also discussed. We were assured that Mr. Scoggins had already warned the children of this fact and had spoken to the owner of the fence. We were assured, also, that the fence was not heavily charged. However, we would deem it advisable that you discuss this charged fence with your children and strongly advise them to AVOID it.”

Alas, there are no known updates as to if there were any incidents involving the fence.

The year of 1955 seems to have been a dangerous one. During the same month as the mention of the Dallas hazard, Toomsboro had its own close call on campus.

At Toomsboro Elementary, a second grader named Marie “was bitten by a poisonous snake while playing on the school grounds during recess Monday. The child was rushed to a local doctor for emergency treatment and then carried to a Milledgeville hospital.”

Sources: The Dallas New Era – Sept. 15, 1955; Wilkinson County News – Sept. 16, 1955