news Bogie, Bradley and Busing
The Story of Pinellas County School Integration A nine-part series exclusive to the Gabber Part 4: The Busing Battle Begins Leon W. Bradley Sr. worked as a Clearwater police officer, served as the vice president of that city’s NAACP branch, and watched the county’s strategy proceed at a snail’s pace. Boycotts and demonstrations had led to the peaceful desegregation of some St. Petersburg stores and luncheonettes by 1961, but public schools remained segregated. That summer, two African American students enrolled at St. Petersburg Junior College. In the fall of 1961, another Black student enrolled at the Tomlinson Adult Education Center near Mirror Lake. The school board had denied more than 900 other applications by Black parents to switch schools in 1961. Only three Black students integrated schools in September 1962. A year later, a total of 118 Black students attended 10 formerly allwhite schools. Although the increase between 1962 and 1963 sounds substantial, in reality it exemplified the approach of tokenism: Adding a single student of a different race allowed the district to claim a school had integrated. That fall, 57,124 white and 10,197 non-white students enrolled in Pinellas public schools. Shifting only 118 students seemed like scant progress.
PINELLAS COUNTY SCHOOLS
By James A. Schnur
Desegregation had not occurred at Boca Ciega Senior High School, Disston Junior High School (a few blocks to the east) or Gulfport Elementary School by 1963. Although Black families had slowly started to move into areas such as Childs Park and Fairmount Park, none of their children crossed 49th Street to enter these campuses. Similarly, no Black students attended North-
east High School (opened in 1954) or Dixie Hollins Comprehensive High School (opened in 1959). The year Dixie opened, Dr. Ralph Wimbish assumed the presidency of St. Petersburg’s NAACP branch. He joined various Black ministers in combating Jim Crow. That fall, an NAACP representative accompanied 11 Black students who ventured to the newly-opened Dixie Hollins
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theGabber.com | July 22, 2021 - July 28, 2021
