All alumni are encouraged to attend Saturday's (March 8th) Douglass alumni meeting at 11 AM in the V.O. Dobbins Community Center Complex and offer opinions on the upcoming reunion gathering this summer.
Here's food for thought... what's the difference between "integration" and "desegregation?"
Nowhere but the all-Black schools of upper East Tennessee could the difference have ever been so pronounced.
The word integration means "to unite or combine.. to give or cause to give equal opportunity and consideration."
The word desegregation means "to eliminate racial segregation by integrating at an institutional level members of different communities."
In Kingsport's case, 'desegregation' meant closing its all-Black school, a school equal to any other school in Kingsport and moving its students to the former-all White schools. Or 'integration'... keeping the all-Black school building open with its students, and bringing White students into that building.
We all know what happened.
60 years ago this summer, the desegregation of the Douglass High School in Kingsport officially began. In 1965 with several surrounding Black high schools in other cities already closing their doors, one thing stood in the 'Model City's' way... the new Dobyns-Bennett High School was still under construction that year, delaying Kingsport's desegregation process.
Many Black students and parents were already having to give an eye towards attending Washington Elementary, Lincoln Elementary, John Sevier Junior High and Dobyns-Bennett High School. Desegregation in Kingsport was completed the next year in 1966 with the opening of the new D-B building, and the closing of Douglass.
As alumni, we have come a long way since those difficult and confusing times, as Kingsport began a desegregation process that often, did not include the thoughts and opinions of its Black population.
All we've had to hold us together since then, have been our Reunions, held every two years. We are approaching one of those times this year in 2025.
Again, the Board of Directors of the Sons and Daughters of Douglass Alumni Association will meet on Saturday, March 8, 2025.
The main topic of discussion will be the upcoming reunion planned for this summer.
The meeting will be held at 11 AM, in the Eastman Conference Room on the second floor of the V.O. Dobbins Community Center Complex, 301 Louis Street, Kingsport.
Come one, come all and bring an alumni friend with you.
