CHapteR 2: First Things First

CHapteR 2

First things First

Macon County had elected its first majority black school board and it needed a new superintendent. Evidently, leaders contacted the area universities for recommendations, which is how I became involved. I had a good relationship with Auburn University’s dean of the School of Education, Truman Pierce, whom I met through the Southeastern Education Laboratory (SEL). The US government funded education laboratories across the country, and the one that was funded in our area encompassed the tristate area of Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. Its purpose was to eliminate educational deprivation in the tristate area. The bylaws specified that the members of the board of directors would be the deans of schools of education, including Tuskegee Institute, University of Alabama, Auburn University, University of Florida, Florida State University, University of Georgia, and Emory University. And the bylaws also spelled out that the president of the state high school principals association would be a member of the board of directors. I was then the president of the all-black high school principals association in Georgia. So I became a member of the board of directors among all these college deans.

We used to have some heated discussions, because when the deans came up with things they wanted to do, I said, “You all talk like you’re dealing with the most significant problems connected with educational deprivation. You all don’t see the worst problems, because we cull that out before we come to you. So you all have got to understand that the major problem of educational deprivation is among people you don’t ever see, and you all always want to spend your money on programs of that deprivation that you see, but that’s not the real deprivation.” We used to have

heated dialogues, and invariably, I was on one side and everybody else was on the other side. But I established a good rapport with the other members, and the deans, for the most part, were favorably impressed with my ideas and my ability to articulate why I had such beliefs.

So when Macon County (Alabama) was looking for a new superintendent, the dean of the School of Education in Tuskegee, Dean Hunter, was approached by the members of the Macon County Board of Education to recommend somebody, and he recommended me. The board members asked me to send my references to them, so I did, and I included the name of my last superintendent in Gainesville. Apparently, he didn’t give me a good recommendation, because the board representative called me and said, “You’ve got to send some more references.” He said, “Don’t use your last superintendent.” I surmised that he must have said a lot of negative things about me. We had parted company in a negative way. Whenever I disagreed with Blakeney Revis, I’d always tell him. It didn’t make any change in his actions, but it gave me ease over it. I said, “When people do something negative against me, I may not be able to change it, but I can let them know that I’m not pleased with it. I’m dissatisfied.” So when Revis told me that he was going to merge the black high school with the white high school, he added, “When I do, confidentially, I’m going to recommend you to be assistant superintendent.”

I said, “The hell you are. I’m the best high school principal in Georgia, and I know I’m the best in this state.”

Revis said, “Well, Mr. Byas, I can’t understand you. I’m talking about a promotion for you, and you acting like that.”

I said, “Promotion is what the worker thinks, and that’s your idea of a promotion, not mine. I only hear you saying that I’ll not be considered as the principal of the new high school.” I continued. “I’ve got a choice right now: I can choose to stay here next year as principal or I can choose to leave. But if I choose to stay, then you’re telling me that I won’t have that choice. So I’m going to leave while I have a choice.”

Revis got upset. He had to do a lot of explaining to the community regarding why he couldn’t find something acceptable to keep me in Gainesville, because I was doing a whole lot of community work. So I think that’s why he didn’t give me a good recommendation for the Macon County job.

Initially, I had not asked Truman Pierce, dean of the School of Education in Auburn, for a recommendation. Nor had I asked Clyde Blair, Alabama’s assistant superintendent in charge of curriculum, who was also on the SEL board of directors, so I called Blair and told him I was a candidate and I needed a recommendation. “Oh, Mr. Byas, you’re the man for the job. I’ll call right now, and I’ll follow it with a letter.”

Truman Pierce said the same thing. Of course, Dean Hunter had already recommended me. Then I went to my brag book, where I had three or four letters that my former superintendent had written in appreciation for some outstanding job that I had done. I reproduced copies of those and sent them to the committee. Once I did all that, the opposition died down.

My appointment so upset my former superintendent that when I went to a national meeting the following year, I looked up and Revis was coming my way. He saw me and turned and went the other way. I cut him off. I said, “Hey, man, you look like you try to dodge me.” He wasn’t happy to see me!

I guess he wasn’t the only one who was upset. The board that selected me had four blacks and one white female who was the chairman of the board, a lady by the name of Frances Rush. She had to write me a letter telling me that the board had named me the superintendent of schools, and then she rushed right out the school district! I never had a chance to work with her. She resigned from the school board and left, which doesn’t surprise me, because historically during desegregation, the so-called white liberals would cooperate with blacks so long as they were electing a white to the position. But the white cooperation stopped when it came to trying to elect blacks to the position. So she was working well with the blacks until the majority of blacks decided they wanted a black superintendent. I told somebody when I learned that Ms. Rush had resigned, “Well, she’s true to her name.” She rushed on out, eventually sold the house, and moved out of the county.

Unfortunately, there were negative attitudes among some of the people in the county too. When the word got out that the board had employed a new superintendent from Georgia, and from Atlanta, some people in one area spread

the rumor that the board had hired a Black Panther. In another area, somebody said it had hired a white person because nobody had seen me.

I went to Tuskegee at the invitation of the board during the daytime for an appointment on the campus, and that’s where they interviewed me. When we completed the interview, I decided that if they hired me, I would take the job without visiting the schools or looking at the problems. It was the best decision I ever made, because had I looked at the problems, there’s no way in hell I’d have left my job in Atlanta to go there!

Well, when the board announced my coming, I got a telegram. One board member called me and told there had been mass meetings and some protesters decided to send me a telegram that basically told me the citizens were interested in somebody else, and that in the interests of public education in the county, the best contribution I could make would be to withdraw my name. The telegram said that all of the bus drivers, all of the teacher aides, all of the teachers, and all of the principals were against my coming. So the board members called me. They were concerned and upset about it. And I said to the board, “Well, I interpreted the telegram as being pro somebody else not anti me. Couldn’t be anti me,” I said, “because they don’t know me.” And that was a good stance to take, because after about four months there, the person who took the initiative of sending the telegram asked for an appointment with me. She came in the office. She said a lot of things, but to sum it up, she said, “We really didn’t know. You’re the best thing to happen to schools in Macon County.”

That was Wilhelmina Baldwin. Wilhelmina had been in the district for over twenty-five years; she had been principal of a little school when they had 400 to 500 different schools in the county. She moved from one place to the other. She later became my director of curriculum and instruction. Wilhelmina became one of my best supporters.

Another person who got to be my good supporter was Connie Harper. She was the person who had been responsible for the board having released my white predecessor from his position. Community members were picketing and protesting in front of his office. She was carrying a placard and said he hit her. (Later, she said he hadn’t hit her but he had brushed up beside the placard.) However, when that came up, the folks just got all upset with Mr. Wilson, and they ran him out of the county.