Southern Nash High School - Unitat Yearbook (Bailey, NC)

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adlines never cap ory of those hundreds © ools in the state that have ully and successfully in- ed. This is a story of just those schools. In its own y it is a remarkable it proves ‘that white ‘ shar aed ee in- ration if they want to work the school is not a bophisticated, lightened,” — : thern Nash Senior High School : Stanhope is one of two con-— Mee he Schools in Nash basic res were not. were they bitter and sullen like ‘some of their city brothers. In was of their environment. Unite many of their urban cou or ‘knew the meaning of hard work. Both races were generally poor, and the Negroes often fe ll into e ‘poverty’ categ ack students had pare were either tenant farmers or welfare recipients. But in spite of their backgrounds, the Negroes had a great deal of pride and “Uncle Toms’’: nor general, most students of both races were friendly, open, likable 1 kids who sincerely. wanted to ot the fo North Carolina arge cities such as Charlotte, iows. Not petty ago, many le thought that Nas “Klan Country,’ oe at over outhern ” ot 1968 as a Coriprebensive. olidated, partially integrated ‘school. One year later the ol was totally integrated. n the 1969-70 term began, ime, in” many respects xern Nash was a split school. i. whites strongly opposed total iration, and many blacks re- I'd being forced out of schools nich they had built up loyalty. underlying hostility on the | of both races emerged early ye school year. A few students a wanted to avoid any major racial outbreak. The Southern Nash principal, Dr. Guy 7. ‘Swain, not only avoid. racial. conflict was also deter- ake the first year . of ing integration a positive s,s s. Swain, unlike many other educators, be ed in pre- » tolerated i, wanted pte ‘pi new schol Furthermore, he in- | sisted that Southern Nash meet needs of all students through rogram, from academics to In keeping with his philosophy, Swain sought out co-sponsors for the Student Cooperative Asso- ciation, or student council. He asked Herbert Pulley, a Negro guidance counselor. who had served on the Pitt County Good Neighbor Council, and me, a young white teacher considered close to the students, to help guide the student council. Pulley and I decided to discard the old system of student govern- ment which had operated at traditional a new - abadent eovertiehe We attempted to represent all shades of student opinion on the commit- tee, ‘authority and a from teachers’ pets ‘ to downright troublemakers. Though a few murmurs were heard from bine fellow faculty members about our selections, we wanted to avoid a “‘credibility gap” bet- ween the student body and the new student council by using a steering committee which truly represented . the — students’ feelings. We assured the steering come mittee that it had complete free- dom to establish whatever form of student government it thought best for Southern Nash. There was only one absolute guideline which Pulley and I constantly stressed — all students must be guaranteed representation hy the new student council. Voice for Blocks. The Committee soon ‘realized that the biggest single obstacle in designing a new system was in assuring the black students a voice in the SCA. Negroes were a minority at Southern Nash: of about 1,300 students, just over 40 per cent were black. The ir committee felt that if elections were held for the traditional student body officers — president, vice president, secretary and treasurer —.then whites would probably sweep the election, due to the larger number. This had indeed happened at other schools, and in some cases violence had broken out between the. races as an outgrowth of such elections. Feeling that strict majority rule would probably deny the rights of the Negro minority and perhaps open the door to racial hostility, the committee eliminated the forms of student government and began thinking in totally new directions. Finally after many unusual pro-

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