East Side High School was a senior high school in
Cleveland, Mississippi
Cleveland is a city and one of two county seats of Bolivar County, Mississippi, United States, the other seat being Rosedale, Mississippi, Rosedale. The Cleveland population was 11,199 as of the 2020 United States census.
Cleveland has a large c ...
, within the
Mississippi Delta
The Mississippi Delta, also known as the Yazoo–Mississippi Delta, or simply the Delta, is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi (and portions of Arkansas and Louisiana) that lies between the Mississippi and Yazo ...
region. It was a part of the
Cleveland School District and the building itself remains such as a middle school. In September 2017, it was merged into
Cleveland Central High School.
[Home]
Archive
. Cleveland School District. Retrieved on July 2, 2017.
As of 2016, it was an all-black high school.
[Gates, Jimmie E.]
Cleveland schools must desegregate
Archive
. ''The Clarion-Ledger
''The Clarion Ledger'' is an American daily newspaper in Jackson, Mississippi. It is the second-oldest company in the state of Mississippi, and is one of the few newspapers in the nation that continues to circulate statewide. It is an operating ...
''. May 16, 2016. Retrieved on May 17, 2016. Historically African-Americans lived in the eastern part of Cleveland. Their teams were known as the Trojans.
[Lerner, Sharon.]
A School District That Was Never Desegregated
Archive
. ''The Atlantic
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 185 ...
''. February 5, 2015. Retrieved on May 18, 2016.
History
It opened as a segregated black school, Cleveland Colored Consolidated High School.
[
For a long period B. L. Bell, known as "Professor Bell," served as the principal of the historic black school. He became an informant, for the ]Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission
The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission (also called the MSSC or Sov-Com) was a state agency in Mississippi active from 1956 to 1973 and tasked with fighting integration and controlling civil rights activism. It was overseen by the List of G ...
, a pro-segregation state agency of Mississippi, during the Civil Rights Movement. Bell received $100 (about $ according to inflation) on a monthly basis to establish a network of African-American informers by 1959,[Dickerson, James. ''Dixie's Dirty Secret: The True Story of how the Government, the Media, and the Mob Conspired to Combat Integration and the Vietnam Antiwar Movement''. ]M.E. Sharpe
M. E. Sharpe, Inc., an academic publisher, was founded by Myron Emanuel Sharpe in 1958 with the original purpose of publishing translations from Russian in the social sciences and humanities. These translations were published in a series of jou ...
, 1998. , 9780765603401. p
35
as that year Bell had proposed establishing a spy network to Governor of Mississippi
The governor of Mississippi is the head of government of Mississippi and the commander-in-chief of the U.S. state, state's Mississippi National Guard, military forces. The governor has a duty to enforce state laws, and the power to either appro ...
James P. Coleman.[Bolton, Charles C. '' The Hardest Deal of All: The Battle Over School Integration in Mississippi, 1870-1980''. ]University Press of Mississippi
The University Press of Mississippi (UPM), founded in 1970, is a university press that is sponsored by the eight state universities in Mississippi (i.e., Alcorn State University, Delta State University, Jackson State University, Mississippi Sta ...
, 2005. , 9781604730609
85
Bell also recorded NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...
meetings in his area, sending the information to the commission. Bell denied being paid by the commission when he was openly accused of disloyalty in NAACP meetings.[ Charles C. Bolton, author of ''The Hardest Deal of All: The Battle Over School Integration in Mississippi, 1870-1980'', wrote that the suspicion against him made Bell an ineffective informer.][ B. L. Bell, Jr., the man's son, stated in a 1996 interview that his father believed black teachers and students were not "qualified enough" for white schools, and this is why he believed his father would cooperate with the commission.
From 1988 to 1997 Leroy Byars served as the principal. He was the American football coach previously, from 1972 to 1987.][ The American football field at East Side High was named after him.
The Cleveland School District made several failed attempts to encourage white students to enroll at East Side High. In the 1990s the Cleveland School District established magnet programs to East Side High. At another point it established a "Freedom of Choice" program to allow all students in the school district the ability to attend a different school instead of a neighborhood school. In 2012 the school district opened an ]International Baccalaureate
The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), more commonly known as the International Baccalaureate (IB), is a nonprofit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and founded in 1968. It offers four educational programmes: the I ...
at East Side High. Despite these efforts East Side High remained almost all black.[
In 2015 the school had 360 students, and all but one were black.][ all of its students were black.][Brown, Emma.]
Judge orders Mississippi school district to desegregate, 62 years after Brown v. Board of Education
" ''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
''. May 16, 2016. Retrieved on May 17, 2016. As of 2015 some black students normally assigned to Cleveland High chose to enroll in East Side High because at East Side they had a better chance of joining sports teams and other extra curricular activities with limited spaces. Some black parents sent their children to East Side because they feared they would not be treated well at Cleveland High.[ Some white students took select ]Advanced Placement
Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the United States and Canada created by the College Board. AP offers undergraduate university-level curricula and examinations to high school students. Colleges and universities in the US and elsewhere ...
(AP) courses at East Side High, but did not enroll there.[
In May 2016 the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi ordered the school district to consolidate the schools in order to achieve racial integration. This meant East Side consolidated with Cleveland High, which as of that year was 47% black and 45% white.][ The former Cleveland High School will house all high school students, while the former East Side High School will house all middle school students.Home page]
Cleveland School District. Retrieved on May 21, 2016. "United States District Court Judge Debra Brown on Friday May 13, 2016, adopted the Department of Justice's plan to consolidate middle and high schools in the Cleveland School District, which will result in one high school at Cleveland High School and one middle school at East Side High."
The final high school graduation ceremony was held in 2017.[
]
Programs
As of 2015 the district lawyers stated that school offered two workshops for preparing for the ACT test. Muave Sanders, a 12th grade (senior) student who is black and who was a plaintiff against the school district in a desegregation lawsuit, stated that he did not receive ACT test preparation.[
]
Campus
the school did not have lockers. The school did have a weight room. Sanders stated that the weight room in Cleveland High "makes ours look like a baby weight room."[
]
Culture
At every graduation, members of the graduating class from 50 years prior attended to see a new generation graduate.[
]
References
External links
East Side High School
{{authority control
Public high schools in Mississippi
Schools in Bolivar County, Mississippi
2017 disestablishments in Mississippi
Educational institutions disestablished in 2017
Cleveland, Mississippi