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Oak Ridge celebrating 65th anniversary of school desegregation

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Four of the “Oak Ridge 85” students at a recent music event. From left to right are Larry Gipson (Oak Ridge 85), Eric Dozier (musician), Deloise Mitchell (Oak Ridge 85), Emma McCaskill (Oak Ridge 85), and Mary Guinn (Oak Ridge 85). (Photo by Barbara McCord)

Oak Ridge is celebrating the 65th anniversary of its school desegregation this weekend.

“Sixty-five years ago this September, 85 brave and dedicated young African American students entered all-white classrooms in the Oak Ridge High School and the Robertsville Junior High School in Oak Ridge, Tennessee in a historic school system desegregation,” organizers said in a press release.

It wasn’t the first public school desegregation in the nation, but organizers said it was the first public school desegregation in the Southeast.

“As such, it challenged the racist and sometimes dangerous Jim Crow culture,” the press release said. “This desegregation stands as an important milestone in American civil rights history.”

The anniversary events are being held with the Oak Ridge school system. Public participation in some events had to be scaled back because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Protesters want life, liberty, justice

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Civil rights leader Reverend Harold Middlebrook tells Black Lives Matter protesters in Clinton on Thursday, June 11, 2020, that the movement will require more than a march. (Photo by John Huotari/oak Ridge Today)

CLINTON—Civil rights pioneer Anna Theresser Caswell asked people to not hate.

Civil rights leader Reverend Harold Middlebrook told local Black Lives Matters protesters that the movement will require more than a march.

Caswell and Middlebrook were two of about a dozen speakers at a Black Lives Matter march and protest that started at the Clinton football field and ended at Clinton Middle School on Thursday. Several hundred people attended.

Clinton Middle School is where the high school used to be. It was desegregated more than 60 years ago. It’s reported to have been the first high school in the South to desegregate under the U.S. Supreme Court decision Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954.

Caswell, 77, was one of the 12 Black teenagers who walked down from Green McAdoo School on Foley Hill and desegregated the old Clinton High School, which had been all-white, on August 27, 1956.

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Oak Ridge hosting NAACP state convention

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PASTOR DERRICK HAMMOND
Derrick Hammond

This week, Oak Ridge is hosting the NAACP Tennessee State Convention and Civil Rights Advocacy Conference.

It’s the 73rd annual NAACP Tennessee State Convention, and it starts today (Thursday, September 26) and continues through Saturday, September 28.

Thursday’s events will be held at Oak Valley Baptist Church in Oak Ridge. The events on Friday and Saturday will be at the DoubleTree Hotel in Oak Ridge.

The Anderson County/Oak Ridge NAACP Branch under the leadership of local president Dave Anderson is the sponsoring branch, a press release said.

The convention will feature a variety of events and workshops that will 1) encourage attendees to become civically engaged around religious affairs, and 2) assist in expunging the records of people wanting to return to the workforce, the press release said. Other actions include helping members become more effective in their work related to advocacy, human rights, and youth empowerment—all designed to equip people with the necessary knowledge to assist in making their voices and votes count, the press release said.

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