Charleston High School Integration

On July 27, 1954, the Charleston School Board unanimously voted to integrate all grade levels of its public school system, becoming the first in the South to do so in response to the May 17, 1954, United States Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. On August 23, 1954, eleven Black students, including three ninth graders and eight elementary school children, attended class alongside 480 white students, and the peaceful integration attracted little notice outside the area. Barbara Williams, one of the eleven Black students who enrolled in 1954, lived in this house with her parents, R.B. and Victoria, and her nine siblings: Ruby, Etholia, Sylvia, Fanny, Mildred, Mary, Robert, Richey, and Vircy. In 1961, Barbara Williams became the first African American woman to graduate from the high school. In 1998, Charleston High School was designated a National Commemorative Site, the first in the nation, through legislation authored by U.S. Senator and Charleston native Dale Bumpers.

Arkansas · United States