Many, many Georgia schools have been named for geography. The announcement that the soon-to-open Denmark High in Forsyth County was to be named for a person was a bit of a surprise. Few persons see their names on high school buildings here.
In the days of segregation, many schools were named for geography: Gray High, Tift County Industrial, Houston County Training, etc.
But there were many that weren’t, especially with new buildings opening in the 1950s.
George Washington Carver was a popular name for schools.
It would take encyclopedia volumes to even provide a summary of the inequalities facing black schools before the Minimum Foundation Program transformed the state of Georgia.
Let’s explore some of the issues.
Transportation
In the Seventy-Sixth and Seventy-Seventh Annual Reports of the Department of Education to the General Assembly of the State of Georgia (printed in 1948), the state admitted some of this was their fault.
“The State Board of Education makes the same allowances for both white and Negro pupils to be transported,” it said. “[H]owever, the state appropriation for transportation has not increased in recent years and this factor has limited the expansion of Negro school transportation.”
In 1948, 98 counties supplied 147 buses for black pupils carrying 10,509 pupils. There were 2,724 white school buses carrying 189,670 pupils.
The Annual Reports did not bother hiding the prejudice of the situation.
“Approximately 75% of the cost of transportation of students in Georgia at the present time must be borne by local funds,” said the Annual Reports from 1948, “and local school officials have been more reluctant to spend local funds on the transportation of Negro students than of white students.”
By June 1950, the situation was some better, according to the Seventy-Eighth and Seventy-Ninth Annual Reports.
There were now 406 buses for black students (to 2,897 white buses). More counties were using the service.
In none, though, were there more black buses than white buses, even in those where the African-American population was higher than that of the white population.
Of the 159 county school systems, 155 had at least one black school.
Of the 155 county school systems with at least one black school, 41 still did not provide a single bus as of June 1950; 25 more provided a single bus. Only one system, Chatham, provided more than 10 (18).
Burke County, which led the state with 60 black schools, had six school buses for black students.
Of the systems that provided no buses for black students, Sumter and Wilkes counties each had 36 African-American schools. Buses were not broken down into county and city systems in the Reports. Including two city schools for Americus, Sumter County provided no buses for black children attending 38 schools.
Morgan County had 32 black schools. Elbert, Mitchell, Oglethorpe and Stewart counties each had 31 schools. Elbert’s number is 32 including Blackwell Memorial in the Elberton system.
Only four of the systems not providing a bus for African-American students were mountainous counties with small populations requiring just one black school. On the flip side, Echols County also had just one black school and provided three buses for its students and Murray County, also in the mountains, provided two buses for its lone black school at Chatsworth.
The Annual Reports from 1950 listed Worth County as having two buses for black students. That was not the case, according to a petition from citizens living in that county, who claimed that one bus and four cars were transporting just 46 African-American students to school.
And not all buses were exactly modern for those counties using them.
Heard County school bus used for black students until 1949. (Image from Look At Our Schools! 1949 … As they are today.)
Look At Our Schools! 1949 … As they are today, a publication issued by the Georgia Department of Education, included photographs from various parts of the state, showing school improvements.
The bus to the right was in use in Heard County in 1949. Look At Our Schools printed a picture underneath it of a brand new bus (or at least newer) bus in use in the county.
Heard was likely not an outlier.
(Similar type buses with wooden bodies were being used for white school children as well, but Look At Our Schools said, “Only a few buses of this type are now in use.”)
Some counties were beginning to remedy the situation.
Greene County, which had one black bus as of June 1950, had increased the fleet to eight by October. Taking place at the same time in Greene was a hurried consolidation from 25 schools to nine to appease black citizens who had filed a petition a year earlier. Greene citizens were happy at the moment, but were awaiting more permanent measures that were being suggested under the announced but not yet funded Minimum Foundation Program.
Houston County, another one of the systems with no black school buses in 1950 (for 23 schools), finally added four for the 1951-52 school year.
The four buses were only there to bring seventh grade and older students to Perry Training School.
Some systems waited even longer, however.
It was not until 1956 that Schley County provided a bus for black students. Much smaller and much more primitive means had previously existed.
“Two new buses brought bus transportation to Negro students for the first time and delivery was promised on a third bus before the end of the week,” said The Ellaville Sun.
“These buses, providing transportation for approximately 150 students, replace six station wagons and pickup formerly used to carry pupils to elementary schools in some areas and others to high school in Ellaville.”
Sources: The Atlanta Constitution – Oct. 19, 1950; The Sylvester Local – Jan. 5, 1950; The Houston Home Journal – Aug. 2, 1951; The Ellaville Sun – Sept. 9, 1956; Look At Our Schools! 1949 … As they are today;Â Seventy-Sixth and Seventy-Seventh Annual Reports of the Department of Education to the General Assembly of the State of Georgia;Â Seventy-Eighth and Seventy-Ninth Annual Reports of the Department of Education to the General Assembly of the State of Georgia.
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