Townsend Park High School

Townsend Park High School was a segregated, all-black high school in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. As a result of the lawsuit Dove v. Parham, it was eventually merged into Dollarway High School.

History

Prior to the Brown v Board of Education decision in 1954, Arkansas law required school districts to maintain separate schools for black and white students. Traditionally, schools were operated on a neighborhood basis, and this allowed the white-dominated school board to continue operating segregated schools because the neighborhoods themselves were segregated.[1] In 1959 the court case Dove v. Parham[2] ruled that three negro students had the right to attend Dollarway High School. Segregationists including Jim Johnson and Amis Guthridge incited a riot and prevented this from happening for some period of time. Because of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the school board reluctantly instituted a choice plan, which resulted in a very small number of black students attending Dollarway, but no white students attending Townsend Park. A very small number of teachers had also been transferred between the old systems. Judge Henley ruled in Cato v. Parham[1] that this did not satisfy the requirement for integration. White members of the school board admitted that race was still a consideration in their zoning, and that they ignored the input of the board's only black member. Judge Henley ordered that the zoning be withdrawn and that the faculty be reassigned so that the percentages were approximately equal to the percentages of the population. In 1970 the schools were finally integrated, with Townsend Park High School becoming Townsend Park Elementary, which it remained until it closed in 2016. High school students were sent to Dollarway High School.[3]

The school yearbook was known as The Eagle[4]

Notable people

Troy Neal, football player for the New York Jets[5]

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References
  1. Cato v. Parham, 297 F.Supp. 403 (E.D. Ark. March 26, 1969).
  2. Dove v. Parham, 194 F.Supp 112 (E.D. Ark. May 12, 1961).
  3. Hutter, David (11 May 2017). "Graduation carries special significance for PB family". Retrieved 17 November 2018.
  4. "THE ARKANSAS FAMILY HISTORIAN" (PDF). Retrieved 17 November 2018.
  5. "Home To Volunteer". 23 March 2012. Retrieved 17 November 2018.

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