Mt. Vernon Register News March 12, 1974 Symbol of Racial Separatism For Years OLD MT.V SCHOOL A WHITE ELEPHANT By STEVE KORRIS, Register-News Staff Writer
The Booker T, Washington School, the symbol of racial , separatism
in Mt. Vernon for many years and a
White elephant for the past 12 years will be sold tomorrow, and will apparently
serve as a recreational center.
The bullding lay dormant from 1962 to 1965, was used by fhe Mt, Vernon
YMCA from 1965 to 1970,
then went back into mothballs.
The passage of time makes it difficult to imagine that only a dozen
years ago, this community supported
an all.black school. Just as difficult to imagine is that Mt.
Vernon was attacked twice by the NAACP,
once in 1957 and again in in 1962, for maintaining what the NAACP felt
s was a segregated system.
By the late 50's, however, a the Disrict 80 grade school board had
told parents of black children fhat
they could choose whether to send them to Washington School or to the school
located in their neighborhood.
And by l962, when the NAACP made, It's second criticism of Mt. Vernon,
the closing of Washington School
had already been announced.
On Jan.10th of that year, the District 80 board announced that
the school would be closed at the end of the school year .
The board acted on a recommendation by a committee which had been appointed
in 1961 by Board President
Fletcher Farrar.
The decision to let parents choose between Washington and the other
city schools might have forestalled criticism
of the school system, but it also had a drastic effect on enrollment at
Washington School.
In 1955, enrollment at Washington School peaked at 73 students, all
black, But each succeeding year saw more
black youngsters switching to Edison, Mann, Hall, and Lincoln schools.
The last year fhat Washington School was open, 1961-62, fhere were
just 74 in students enrolled.
After the closing of the school, board members and the general public
began kicking around ideas for a
way to use the building. In 1963, City manager Chester Lewis suggested
it be used for recreational purposes,
perhaps as a YMCA facility. However, when the building was put up for sale
on June 5, 1963, no one stepped
forward to purchase it.
The school board maintained ownership and in 1965, leased the building
to the Mt. Vernon YMCA, bringing
Lewis's idea into reality.
In 1970, the school board decided to sell the school building. An auction
was held Aug. 2, 1970, and the minimum
bid was set at $90,000. Nobody wanted it at that price, and the auction
failed.
Tomorrow, the minimum bid will be announced at $30,000. The Mt. Vernon
YMCA, four years after it left the building,
wants to reinter it now, but as owner this time. The "Y" has submitted
an irrevocable offer to bid $30,000. That
figure appears a bit ironic in the light of the cost of past construction
at the Washington School. In the late 40's and
early 50's, when Mt. Vernon poured some $2,000,000 into renovating its
entire school system, some $150,000
worth of repairs and additions were made at the school.
