Butler mission and more connected to the community. Mitchell said while education was still happening in the building, he’d like to see education more closely aligned with the original E.E. And I had teachers that talked to me, that I needed to really spent time learning because the system had the cards stacked against me.” “I went 12 years and the southern institution of education denied me, denied the Supreme Court and I went 12 years of all black education, and there was nothing wrong with it, but it was not equal. Like Mitchell, he also credited a strong sense of community and the concept of a neighborhood school for a support system among his family, his teachers and his neighbors. ![]() “It made us better because of the worse situation we were in,” he said. “We had to figure out, as children, how to network with someone in your class that had the page that you were missing so you could get your assignment done.” He described secondhand school book passed down from white schools with the pages missing and vandalism, but said they knew that didn’t excuse them from working hard and banding together to get their assignments done. “We had teachers that realized the situation, and we worked hard to make the best about what little we got,” said Turner. As a ninth grader transitioning to Butler from Fair Street, he said it forced him and his classmates to work smarter. Turner said while Jim Crow was a terrible thing, it also drove him to get a great education. “I hope the alumni of the school system would ask themselves, ‘has it worked?’” “And the reason I have to ask myself ‘has it worked?’ is because of the simple fact that integration at its best is the opportunity to show the beauty of diversity.” “The first question I ask myself is, what happened and why? After all, the school board made a decision to close the newest school in its inventory, and I wonder if that decision was made just to come in compliance a law? And if so, was integration the goal? And if integration was the goal, I have to ask myself, ‘has it worked?’” he said. The theme for the 50th anniversary remembrance ceremony is “Where do we go from here?” Mitchell said the theme was poignant and should remind alumni to check in with themselves as they explore their alma mater. He remembers the lifelong friendships: classmates marrying, starting families and strengthening communities, and the impact of teachers. Butler High is something that made a difference in the life of Gainesville City School Board Vice Chair Willie Mitchell, who graduated from Butler in 1967. She said they would reveal what they have been working on for four years at the Saturday ceremony. “This year, the class of ’69 will share with others a financial legacy that we are going to leave behind as we prepare to embark upon the Fair Street-Butler High reunion 2019,” said Lipscomb. Shirley Lipscomb, class of 1969, said her class was proud to continue the Butler legacy. Teachers and students will share testimonials about their time at the school. Saturday, alumni are welcome to tour the building, check out some memorabilia and reminisce among friends. In just a few short years, the students would transition again in 1969, the high school was closed and Gainesville High was integrated. When Butler High opened, students from Fair Street High School transitioned to the modern school building on Athens Street. He will be one of many Butler High School graduates who will gather at the school Saturday, August 24 from noon until 2 p.m. Butler High School in 1966 and, like many of his classmates, recalled having to use “colored” water fountains, bathrooms and sitting in the back of buses. “We were in the South and this is the time we lived under the rule of Jim Crow, so it was separate, supposedly equal,” said Emory Turner, who graduated from E.E. the Board of Education ruling in 1954, Butler High operated for only seven years before it was closed. ![]() The world was much more black and white when Butler High opened in 1962, in the literal sense. For now, the hallways and classrooms remain silent and empty.īutler Tigers will return to campus, joined by community members, and Ninth District Opportunity to remember the school 50 years after its closing. For now, ivy climbs from the ground up, clinging to the side walls and stretching over decorative checkerboard window panes. Butler High School is called the Butler Center and houses a pre-kindergarten program.
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