Commentary: Fayetteville School System Has History Of Embracing All

One of the questions I've been asked repeatedly since I started as the new superintendent in July is: "Why did you leave a tenured faculty position to become superintendent of Fayetteville Schools?"

There are dozens of reasons but one of the most important is the history of Fayetteville Public Schools.

The Fayetteville School District was the first public school system established in Arkansas back in 1871. This was the same year the Arkansas Legislature established Arkansas Industrial University, which is now the University of Arkansas.

I suspect our school system was larger than the university back then.

As I walk outside my office door I see the pictures of nine superintendents who have been the leaders of this school district going back to N.P. Gates in 1890.

The leader in seniority was F.S. Root, who headed the Fayetteville Public Schools for 38 years. It is hard to imagine the changes Root must have seen during that period of time.

In my opinion, there were several key leaders of this district, including Virgil Blossom from 1942 through 1953. Blossom was here just before the integration of Fayetteville High School in 1954. He left Fayetteville to go to Little Rock, where he was superintendent during the integration of Little Rock Central High School.

During the integration of Fayetteville High School, Wayne White was superintendent and Harry Vandergriff was football coach. Vandergriff later became superintendent.

In May 1954, five days after the findings of the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education, the Fayetteville School Board voted unanimously to integrate Fayetteville High School. Fayetteville became the first school district in Arkansas and the first school district in the old Confederacy to integrate.

During what could have been a tumultuous time, everyone worked together to ensure a smooth and peaceful transition into a new era. The newspapers minimized reporting of the issue to reduce possible segregationist attention.

White students with the Twenty-Six Club and the Student Council planned on how they would embrace the new students and make sure their arrival went smoothly.

As I visited schools during the first few days, I saw classrooms with a very diverse ethnic and racial composition. Our children today are living this school district's legacy of embracing all children no matter their background, economic status or race.

Today our children play and learn together and don't understand those attitudes that, even today, seem to divide our society.

As we read about the plight of very young immigrant children coming to America on their own to seek safety and a chance to live a life free of extreme violence, the Fayetteville School District will embrace them should they come to us. We will teach them, and help them anyway we can. It is what we do and it is who we are.

It is in our history to always do what is right.

Like the other members of the staff and faculty, I'm very proud to be part of the Fayetteville School District. It is a very special school district, in a very special community.

(For an interesting review of the FHS integration look at: Brill, A. (Winter 2006), Brown in Fayetteville: Peaceful southern school desegregation in 1954. The Arkansas Historical Quarterly, LXV(2),337-359.)

Commentary on 08/28/2014

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