In implementing the U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 decision outlawing school segregation by race, the Memphis Board of Education ultimately agreed in 1961 to a plan to integrate the schools. The Memphis Branch of the NAACP recruited 200 applicants, and 13 African-American first graders were selected to integrate four elementary schools in a phased-in approach that added a grade per year and was regarded as the safest way to desegregate the schools. Without violence on October 3, 1961, the students enrolled in Bruce, Gordon, Rozelle, and Springdale Elementary schools. At Springdale Elementary, the first African-American students to enroll were Deborah Holt and Jaqueline Moore, who both lived closer to Springdale than to the African-American school where they otherwise would have been assigned. Jacqueline Moore Christion remembered that the work at Springdale was more advanced than at Hyde Park and said two little girls made her feel very welcome. John Holt, Deborah Holt's father, recalled that his family received hate mail saying that their daughter was still going to be black, but he said it made them more determined. Also remembered are the parents John and Lille Holt and Beatrice Moore. After opening day, the 13 students were on their own, and during that year and those that followed, their social isolation and educational progress were left unmonitored. Despite their difficulties, these 13 "pint-sized pioneers" struck a fatal blow to school segregation and claimed their place in Memphis history.
