The struggle for peaceful school integration in Mississippi just over a half-century ago was a time that called for the emergence of quiet heroes – men and women of courage and good will from both the black and white races.
Lee J. McKinney, 82, who died May 12 at Anderson Regional Medical Center in Meridian following a long illness, was one of those necessary heroes. McKinney grew up in Monroe County and was a graduate of West Amory High School, a school which had its roots in earlier iterations as “Amory Colored Public School” and “Monroe County Training School.”
After completing high school, McKinney would graduate from Rust College, the historically black private liberal arts college in Holly Springs. McKinney also served his country honorably overseas in the U.S. Army for four years in the 124TH Armored Ordnance Battalion.
Mr. McKinney was soft-spoken, polite, and always well-dressed. Despite his quiet nature, he had the look of a middleweight boxer who was ready to go a few rounds merely by removing his sport coat. But as one of the key administrators at Neshoba Central High School during the tense 1969-70 school year, he was remembered not for his physical strength but for his moral courage.
U.S. public schools in the Southern region first became majority minority in 2009. In Mississippi in 2008, some 53.6 percent of all public-school students were people of color.
Those numbers were different back in 1969, when in a matter of weeks, the snail’s pace of school integration at “all deliberate speed” (under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling) decision was replaced by the dictate to integrate “at once” in its Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education decision in 1969.
The decision was handed down by the Supreme Court on Oct. 29 of that year – and some nine weeks later, the 30 Mississippi school districts impacted by the Alexander case were integrated.
My father, Leo W. Salter, was principal at NCHS and McKinney and Leland Harrison were his assistants. In the rather strange rules of that time, Dan and Mr. Harrison handled the discipline for white students and Mr. McKinney disciplined the black students.
Because of the prior civil rights atrocities in Neshoba County, the integration of NCHS drew national media attention. It was a tough time for rural Mississippi educators. My dad relied on Mr. McKinney first as a professional colleague, but soon began to regard him as a trusted friend.
The stories of too many of those brave educators during Mississippi’s school desegration era were lost over time. But Mississippi State University Professor James “Jim” Adams and his wife, University of Alabama Professor Natalie Adams, preserved many of those first-person accounts of public-school integration in Mississippi.
The Adamses completed an oral history study on the desegregation of the state’s public schools between 1963 and 1971 called “Just Trying to Have School” (299 pages, University Press of Mississippi.) Their book focused on recording the first-person accounts of administrators, teachers, coaches, staff, students, parents, community activists and others who had relevant stories from that era.
Our state owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to educators of that era like Lee J. McKinney who braved the threat of violence and mayhem to make school integration work and advance public education in this state. Their history, their stories, should not be lost.
Because of COVID-19, I could not attend Mr. McKinney’s funeral. But I read the comments on the funeral home’s website from mourners. I recognized many of the names of former NCHS students, white students, who wanted a half-century later to say a kind word to honor a truly great school administrator who happened to be black.
Sid Salter is a syndicated columnist. Contact him at sidsalter@sidsalter.com.
Wednesday, June 3, 2020
Sid Salter: Remembering One of Mississippi's Finest Integration Heroes: Lee McKinney
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
9 comments:
.."Has it really worked, Sid?" "Has it, really?" Because, the city and county schools that I see, really don't appear to be integrated....Some of which were even taken over by the State..
Great article. Sid is a real treasure to Mississippi. Whatever you are paying him, you should double it Kingfish.
"Our state owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to educators of that era like Lee J. McKinney who braved the threat of violence and mayhem to make school integration work and ADVANCE PUBLIC EDUCATION in this state."
Advance public education?? Sadly, even though I was educated in the public school system on Mississippi, I have never heard of Mr. McKinney, and it sounds like his contributions to integration and desegrigation are vast and should be celebrated.....but to say that public education in Mississippi is/has "advanced" is a somewhat of an exaggeration.
Other than drinking from the tax payer trough, what purpose does Salter serve?
"who braved the threat of violence and mayhem to make school integration work "
Granted, there was violence and mayhem, but integration never worked for most Mississippi Schools.
The exact opposite resulted.
Integration failed horrendously.
Such words no doubt make the "White guilt crowd" feel warm and fuzzy at their cocktail parties.
But anyone with an ounce of common sense knows that integration did more harm than any good.
" Because of the prior civil rights atrocities in Neshoba County"
Yep, what happened in Neshoba was terrible.
But please explain why that had anything to do with the Federal government mandating that my six year old self in 1969, could no longer attend my North Jackson neighborhood elementary school starting in January 1970 ?
Only because I was a little White boy, I would have to board a school bus and travel gawd knows how many miles to another school across town ?
Sherman would have never done that shit . . . even after burning Jackson for the third time during the War Between the States.
4:56 You asked for explanation. You had to board that school bus because the"leaders" your parents elected would not provide equal funding and facilities to the kids on the other side of town even though the constitution says they must. The argument was not integration but equal protection under the law and the only tool the white courts could find to provide that equal treatment was integration. If you have a beef with someone it should be the racist and short sighted leadership your ancestors selected to oppress other people. Hope this helps.
Our high school principal lived across the street and became a family friend. He told my Dad the Feds wrote him one time and asked how many students of each race he had. He wrote back - 'I don't know. Ya'll said we should teat everyone the same. That's what we try to do. We don't keep records about what race a child is.' Folks that's how it ought to work. Everyone stand on their own behavior and accomplishments. We don't give a *** what color you are.
I was there. Lee J McKinney had the respect of both black and white student’s! Lee J McKinney was one cool customer. I had many encounters with him in the halls of Neshoba Central. I remember exactly what Sid wrote about. For the vast majority of the school year there was peace among the races. Sure there was tension sometimes but the overwhelming majority of time there was calm because people such as Lee J McKinney, Coach Harrison and Mr Salter demanded and expected it from their students! I was there during that time, it was far different than what you think or imagine. Probably one of the calmest and well disciplined schools in the state of Mississippi! I was there!
Post a Comment