In past years, Murray’s Douglass High School Reunion attracted hundreds of attendees. The celebration usually kicked off Thursday night with a memorial service, followed by a barbecue supper on Friday. Bingo games and tee-shirt sales were another highlight, featuring a lively performance entitled “Hush,” starring kids of all ages, singing songs, doing skits, and showing off their talents to an appreciative audience.
It used to be a weekend of homecomings and hugs, good food put away and old stories trotted out and retold to the next generation. Families and friends celebrated the exuberance of a Black community that, despite segregated schooling and barriers of all kinds, overcame obstacles and defied stereotypes designed to hold them in place.
In 2020, the Douglass gathering was canceled because of Covid, but this year even a pandemic could not derail the gathering. It was scaled back to a two-hour awards ceremony, with masks and social distancing easing the risks associated with the delta variant of the virus.
(Photo printed with permission of Mignon Reed)
Master of Ceremonies Danny Hudspeth welcomed the group of about 70 to Murray State University’s Curris Center Ballroom with the reminder, “It is a blessing to be able to stand here.”
He explained that the committee had decided to forego more elaborate plans but was determined to go ahead with the awards ceremony to honor the achievements of young people in the Black community. He thanked the reunion committee and honored guests, and pointed out the buffet stocked with sweets, snacks, and beverages with a quip: “No prime rib this year.”
Pastor of Church of the Living God, Doris Saunders, gave the invocation and asked for special blessing on the group. Days later, she agreed to be interviewed about her recollections of Douglass. Although it closed before she was in high school, she has vivid memories of her elementary school years there.
“For us it just felt normal. We didn’t mind being separate,” she admitted, “That’s all we knew.”
Kids from the Douglass community walked to school and came home for lunch. The teachers were Black too. “We were in our own neighborhood,” Saunders said.
She and others interviewed about Douglass were aware that their facilities were not well-equipped and their books were castoffs from the white schools.
When Murray High School was integrated, some Douglass kids struggled and had to retake classes to catch up. And the challenges were not only academic.
“Everyone was not accepting of us,” Saunders recalled, adding that some of the teachers were less than encouraging, even to the Black students who had outstanding skills. Their was no rancor in her voice, just matter-of-fact recollection.
When whites taunted Blacks with the phrase “8 ball,” the precise meaning might have been ambiguous but the intent was clear. “We knew it was derogatory,” she said.
After this year’s reunion, Anthony Arnold stopped to talk for a few minutes about being one of the last Douglass High School students. He shared some proud memories. Baseball, football and track were his sports.
“I got to play for Professor Miller,” he said, referring to L.P. Miller, a beloved coach and teacher.
Mr. Arnold reminisced about days at Douglass when they had undefeated teams. “Murray High got a lot of good Black athletes from Douglass,” Arnold declared.
Like many from the Douglass community, he went north after he graduated high school in search of a good job and better pay. Because he had a relative in Milwaukee, he headed there first and eventually volunteered for military service. Stationed at Fort Bragg, he became a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne.
Director of the Calloway County Public Library, Mignon Reed was winner of this year’s L.B. Tinsley Education Award. Ms. Reed was recognized for her leadership in the library’s major renovation and expansion. An active member of the Douglass Reunion Committee, she is also head of an oral history grant sponsored by the Kentucky Oral History Commission to conduct interviews about the Douglass School and community.
Ms. Reed supplied the image that accompanies this column. The young men in the picture are tagged the Golden Keys Quartet and are an example of the kind of historic information that the Douglass Oral History Project seeks to honor and archive for posterity.
Mr. Hudspeth is the force behind efforts to secure a historical marker to honor the Douglass School, which stood on land that is now zoned for industrial use.
Much of the history from the Douglass Community has not yet been formally documented the way the history of Calloway County and Murray have been. The more time that passes, the more history is lost. Thurman Foster, another Murray native, has only heard stories of Douglass School, but his mother was in the first integrated graduating class of Murray High School.
“I have relatives who can tell their stories,” he said, mentioning that the history of the Douglass community is universal in some ways and unique in others. “It is the essence of where we came from. The community was together. Families came together. To celebrate each other and life.”
As Calloway County prepares to observe its bicentennial in 2022, a commemorative book is being prepared. Submission guidelines are spelled out at www.calloway2022.com, including a listing of possible categories to cover. Whatever the subject, there should be a Calloway County connection, either by birth or residence. Whatever accomplishments are showcased, they should reveal the impact on the community.
With a Sept. 1 deadline, there is still time to submit articles. Contact the editor, Bobbie Smith Bryant, at bobbiebryant40@gmail.com.
Anyone with connections to Douglass, either the school or the community, can contact Mignon Reed at the Calloway County Public Library if they have artifacts to be scanned and included in the archives, or if they would like to schedule an oral history interview. The phone number is 270-753-2288. Email mignon.reed@callowaycountylibrary.org.
