Coahoma Community College - Coahoman Yearbook (Clarksdale, MS)

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Dear Students, Alumni, and Friends: About midway the third decade of this century the Coahoma County Agricultural High School was founded to meet certain community needs that were then existent. The passing years eliminated or modified some of the original needs but brought on new and expanded ones. To meet new and growing challenges the institution's educational program was broadened and extended upward in 1949 to include the junior college grades. For twenty years, then, Coahoma Junior College and Agricultural High School has sought to offer democratized education to the community it serves on both the secondary and post-secondary school levels. We can look back now and review progress accomplished, re-examine problems solved and yet unsolved, and reassess our worth. We can look at the present and weigh what we are against what we hope to be. And thus from the lessons of the past we can set our goals for the future. It is man's capacity to mentally swing from Retrospection to Progression that sets him apart from other animals. Robert Burns tells the hapless field mouse: Still, thou art blest, compared wi' me! The present only toucheth theeg But, Och! I backward cast my e'e On prospects drear! An' forward, though I canna see, I guess and fear! We look back upon the institution's past with justifiable pride: we look forward to its future with cautious optimism free of fear, Congratulations to the Yearbook Staff for taking a two-way look at CJC and AHS. I ames E, Miller President

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1 . . I Eietrnepvrtinn mth ldrugrvsseiun Q ,- -C 4 - ra VV- B. F, MCLAURIN, SR., Former President Coahoma Jr. College and Agricultural High School Coahoma Junior College is a name I can say with great pride because I have been a part of the growth and progress of this great institution - and this is a great institution. The idea of Coahoma Junior College was conceived in 1949 when Mr. L. L. Bryson became Superintendent of Schools. The institution at that time was nothing more than a few frame buildings. Since that time, however, the school has grown into a modern complex of 40 buildings overlooking the beautiful Mackey Lake. In this complex one will find two dining halls, two gymnasiums, one administration building, a library which houses a reading laboratory, three high school classroom buildings, one building which houses a bookstore and grille, three vocational-technical laboratories, three academic classroom buildings, several mobile science, art and trades laboratories, one mobile audio-visual materials center, five student dormitories, and 13 units of faculty housing. Since 1949 we have grown from twenty-two students to nine hundred. I attribute this growth to several factors: the concern and cooperation of the superintendent and school personnel: the dedication of Mrs. Z. A. Barron, the first teacher employed at the college: the provision of bus transportation from Quitman, Bolivar, and Sunflower Counties: and the acquisition of federal funds. The tremendous progress of Coahoma Junior College can also be attributed to the outstanding performance of our graduates, our dedicated and cooperative faculty and staff, and an outstanding athletic department. Although a lack of dormitories has always been our weakest point, this has not hindered the growth of the school. Coahoma Junior College is a great institution. Our increased enrollment has boosted the local economy through purchases at local stores. From this viewpoint, I suppose one can say that Coahoma Junior College is the only black industry in Coahoma County. Economically speaking, Coahoma Junior College is at least 900 pairs of shoes per year and only Heaven knows how many blouses, shirts, pants, skirts, dresses, and sweaters. ln addition to stimulating the local economy: Coahoma Junior College has raised the intellectual status of people all over the nation.