The year was 1968, and America was winding down a tumultuous decade, one replete with domestic strife – Civil Rights marches and anti-war protests, riots that brought many cities to their knees and assassinations of beloved leaders. The nation’s citizenry hoped for better days.
That year, students, teachers and administrators at all-black L.J. Rowan High School in Hattiesburg made do with what was allotted it in the state’s racially segregated and unequal public education system – tattered, hand-me-down textbooks, under-resourced facilities paling in comparison to those attended by their white counterparts; and teachers, administrators and staff members paid less to perform the same duties.
But in the face of a segregated society and legalized discrimination, those in the Rowan High Class of 1968 were undeterred in their quest to succeed despite the obstacles, to make better their own days ahead with a combination of grit and sheer will to succeed, buoyed by a corps of devoted teachers and a beloved principal who would accept no less. They embraced their class motto: “Yesterday is Past; Tomorrow is Ahead; Only Today is Ours,” and raced ahead into the world to realize their dreams.
Fifty years later, they’ll celebrate a legacy of achievement against the odds when they hold their jubilee reunion July 12-15 at the C.E. Roy Community Center in downtown Hattiesburg, with the theme “Retired, Relaxed and Reminiscing.”
Named for former Alcorn State University president and prominent black educator Dr. Levi J. Rowan, Rowan High School opened in 1950 first as Royal Street High School; in the mid-1950s it was renamed for Dr. Rowan. The school succeeded Eureka High School, only the second all-brick school for African-Americans in Mississippi.
“God willing, if the Lord spares us to do it, we’re delighted to celebrate it,” said Rowan High 1968 graduate Grady Gaines, who married his high school sweetheart and classmate, Doris Townsend Gaines, salutatorian and Reunion Committee president. “We’ve lost so many of our classmates, so this will be a really special occasion.”
“A lot of water has gone under the bridge in 50 years,” Doris Gaines said. “I’m excited and I want everyone else to be as excited to get together as we are. Who knows, some of us may not be here in the next five years.”
Carolyn Hall Abrams, the class’s valedictorian, echoed those sentiments. “I’m ecstatic about us coming together for this special anniversary,” she said. “It’s just a pleasure to look at the number of our class members who are still here and doing well.”
School was heart of community
For members of Hattiesburg’s African American community, church and its schools were central to its culture, as segregation narrowed opportunities for inclusion in the larger society. Rowan offered recreational outlets not only for its students, but for adults who took in its sporting events, including its famed football program, led by legendary coach Ed Steele. The Rowan High School Tigers football team was often at the top of the heap among black high school football programs in Mississippi who were members of the Big Eight Conference. The highlight of the year was the school’s Homecoming Thanksgiving Day Parade, which was followed by a game against a Big Eight rival. The parade and game were highly anticipated events, attended by both blacks and whites across the city, with the procession beginning at the 9th Street ball park and ending at the school. The Miss Rowan Pageant was also circled on the school year calendar as a don’t miss-event.
Doris Gaines was a member of the Rowan Tiger Marching Band, playing the B flat clarinet. “We were awesome,” she said. “The band was like a family, and being a part of it instilled the values of teamwork, punctuality, and organization. I loved every minute of it. The Thanksgiving Day event was always a blast.”
However, the school’s faculty and its principal, N.R. Burger, made clear that academic achievement took precedence over extracurricular activities.
‘In spite of segregation, in spite of not having up-to-date books, second-hand everything, we still achieved,” Grady Gaines said. “Doctors, lawyers, teachers — professionals of every description — came from that, in spite of segregation.
“In spite of that, we still succeeded.”
A devoted faculty, a dedicated principal, a legacy of achievement
Even with the 1954 landmark Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education declaring segregated schools inherently unconstitutional, public schools in the South remained largely segregated up until 1968. Historian and Mississippi native Charles Bolton, author of “The Hardest Deal of All” examines in the book the history of school segregation and desegregation in Mississippi. Bolton echoes Grady Gaines, saying that while black schools received fewer resources than their white counterparts, they still produced successful students because of the dedication of caring teachers and administrators.
“Despite the resource limitations imposed on black schools like Rowan High, a handicap which had existed for decades, black teachers and administrators continued to provide a strong educational program for black children,” Bolton said.
Rowan’s faculty included Marjorie Chambers, social studies; Eloise Hopson, speech; Eleanor Harris, business; Gloria Bryant, home economics; Iva Sandifer, English; and Helen Nicholson, English, among others, and are remembered by members of the class as no-nonsense educators who were fair, but demanded excellence. They offered after-school opportunities for advanced studies in math and science, as well as tutoring in other subjects; prepared the school’s speech and debate team as it traveled to compete against other schools across the state; and advised leaders in the school’s student government association. A field trip to Houston, Texas to visit the NASA Space Station, Texas Southern University and the Astrodome opened participating students’ eyes and minds to a wider world beyond their hometown, and its possibilities.
“Our teachers were extraordinary,” Abrams said. “We were taught you can still succeed, even in a segregated society. We had to work hard and make do with little. But we took a little and made a lot, because our teachers told us if we worked hard, it would pay off. If you have a goal and work hard enough, you can succeed.
“We had to take things seriously, know how to speak correctly. I remember Mrs. Nicholson and her red pencil, marking our papers. She wanted us to learn how to speak correctly and write correctly — not just know proper grammar, but know how to use it in everyday speaking and writing.
“Marjorie Chambers, she taught black history before it was legislated; we had to pass her test on the subject. She prepared us as much for the real world as possible. Mrs. Harris, Mrs. Nicholson, Mrs. Hopson, Miss Sandifer, Mr. Pickett, Mr. Ellis - all our teachers cared about us – they wanted us to be the best. I could go on and on naming teachers and staff who made a positive impact on our lives,” Abrams said.
“They instilled in us that we would have to work twice as hard as white students to succeed out in the real world, and, armed with that knowledge, we weren’t caught by surprise when we came up against obstacles. Certain jobs we would apply for and not get – our teachers would tell us, ‘try anyway –don’t limit yourself. Always be prepared when you go in. But just understand, you will have to work twice as hard to stay there. In that way, Rowan was a laboratory for what was to come.”
“Our teachers told us to always put your best foot forward. You’re as good as anyone out there,” Doris Gaines said.
“You were held accountable by them for what you did,” Grady Gaines said.
“Or didn’t do,” Doris Gaines added.
Rowan’s principal, N.R. Burger, was highly respected not only as an educator but as a prominent leader in, and advocate for, Hattiesburg’s African-American community.
“I remember Mr. Burger as a distinguished, mild-mannered, no-nonsense principal. Although soft-spoken, he was approachable and easy to talk to and highly respected by the student body,” said Doris Gaines. “I don't remember him ever raising his voice; he served as a father figure to some and a disciplinarian to others. When we knew that Mr. Burger was on the hall, there was no running, no talking loud, and you could hear a pin drop.
“I came to learn that he was also a force in the community, going to bat for his teachers and students alike. I believe he was able to be persuasive with the powers that be to garner support for what he was trying to accomplish. Though much of what we received was inferior, we were able to gain more by Mr. Burger's actions than we would have with a person with a more aggressive personality.”
When Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated a little less than two months before their graduation, it was Burger and his faculty that kept their students’ eyes on the prize in the face of the loss of the civil rights hero. Doris and Grady were among those on hand for King’s visit to a packed Mt. Zion Baptist Church, his only appearance in Hattiesburg during the civil rights movement, just two weeks before his tragic death rocked the nation and the world.
Grady Gaines and his fellow students were angry, saddened and despairing the next day at school following King’s murder. “I thought all hope was lost,” he said. “But our teachers and Mr. Burger preached that no matter what, you’ve got to succeed. Don’t let his death be in vain.’ They wouldn’t let us give up.”
By the fall of 1970, the dual school system that had shaped Mississippi public education since its inception in the late 19th century was rapidly being dismantled. The Rowan Class of 1968 was the first class in which the “freedom of choice” option was instituted, allowing students to attend either Rowan or Blair High Schools.
The last graduating class at Rowan received their diplomas in the spring of 1971, before all students began attending Blair for grades 11-12 in December of 1971. Many of the class of 1968 were the first black students to walk across the stage at Blair High School to receive their diplomas. Others chose to remain and graduate from Rowan High School.
Rowan was converted into one of the district’s elementary schools in 2003.
Rowan High becomes a memory, but has lasting impact on graduates
Desegregation did not come without some misgivings and regret. Grady Gaines said there was concern Rowan and its traditions would be lost. That would largely be the case, as it was in most communities, where all public school students wound up attending the previously all-white high schools, which typically were in better condition because of disparities in funding priorities.
“I felt that they wanted us (black community) to embrace (S.H.) Blair High School, and push Rowan to the back. It was good enough for us during segregation, but not good enough for them (whites),” Doris Gaines said.
Doris and Grady Gaines would both go on to college at Dillard and Jackson State University, respectively, but return to Hattiesburg to complete their degrees at William Carey College (now William Carey University), marry and raise a family. Doris had a successful 39-plus year career with Bell South (now AT&T), while Grady would have a nearly 40-year career with Sears, Roebuck, and Co.
Abrams went on to earn degrees from Tougaloo College in Jackson, and a master’s degree in library science degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she worked for several years before returning to Hattiesburg to work in a similar capacity at William Carey University. She later earned a divinity degree from Emory University in Atlanta, and served as a pastor and founding pastor for churches in Stone County, Miss.
In raising her own children, Abrams employed the same philosophy as her teachers at Rowan: “work hard, go to school to learn how to think, not (to be) told what to think.” The result? Two daughters who graduated from Yale University Law School, one of whom is vying to become Georgia’s first African-American female governor, and the other, a federal judge in Georgia; and two other daughters who are college professors.
“The church and Rowan were my two anchors,” Abrams said. “Rowan said ‘You can do it — if you believe it, you can achieve it.’ That’s what I came away with.”
Helen Nicholson taught English and French at Rowan from 1956-1970. What she remembers most about the students in the Rowan High Class of 1968 was that they were self-motivated.
“They wanted to learn,” Nicholson said. “No one had to hold a stick over their head, and their parents were motivated to see them succeed. We had very strong participation in the PTA (Parent-Teacher Association) and interest in the activities their children were involved in.”
“I remember Doris Townsend singing, she had a beautiful voice, and Grady Gaines could also sing, and he was always a gentleman, opening doors for the ladies, and he is still the same today no matter where I see him. And Carolyn Hall, she was a very smart student; if there was something marked incorrect on one of her tests or papers, she wanted to know why, so she could do it correctly the next time.
“I appreciated those children – they were full of respect. Their legacy is one of pushing forward to accomplish goals, to do something with their lives, and not be dependent on others.”
Class gift that keeps giving remains
Many in Rowan High’s Class of 1968 and others who attended the school are members of the alumni group EUROHA (Eureka-Royal Street-Rowan-Hattiesburg High) and continue to support Hattiesburg’s public schools and its students through a variety of initiatives, including most recently with donations totaling approximately $12,000 toward purchase of new uniforms for the HHS Fighting Tiger Marching Band. Grady Gaines currently serves as president of EUROHA.
“When you talk about pride in your community and its schools, character, integrity and service, EUROHA and the members of the Rowan High Class of 1968 come to mind,” said Hattiesburg Public Schools Superintendent Robert Williams. “Their love for their alma mater, support of our students and how they’ve embraced the work we do makes me appreciate even more being a part of it.”
That Rowan remains in operation, if only as an elementary school, gives some comfort to those members of its class of 1968, especially when they see their class gift is still fastened to the front of the main building – an emblem of a Tiger, the school mascot, slightly worn by time and the elements but still clearly bearing the inscription “Class of 1968.”
“A lot of changes have taken place over the years, but to pass by and still see it there, it means a lot. It’s a unifying symbol to me,” said Doris Gaines.
The cost of attendance for the three-day reunion is $100. A special tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will be made at the reunion banquet. For more information, contact Doris Gaines at 601.544.6242 or email dtgaines@bellsouth.net.
