Arsnick: The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Arkansas

26. An Open Letter from Representatives of the Forrest City (Arkansas) Movement (1965)

26. An Open Letter from Representatives of the Forrest City (Arkansas) Movement (1965) Between 1965 and 1969 the Forrest City public school system responded to mandates to desegregate by offering a “freedom of choice” plan. In theory, black students would now have the right to attend previously all-white schools. However, in towns throughout eastern Arkansas local authorities used cumbersome and confusing bureaucratic procedures, intimidation, and other tactics to render the “freedom of choice” integration scheme ineffective. Forrest City did not implement a meaningful plan for school desegregation until the 1970–1971 school year. In this document, written in 1965, African American students from the local black high school describe their efforts to achieve a better educational environment at the black high school as well as the immediate implementation of a plan for school integration. SNCC members Millard “Tex” Lowe, Jerry Casey, and Pat Gladman offered these student activists advice and support. AN OPEN LETTER FROM REPRESENTATIVES OF THE FORREST CITY (ARKANSAS) MOVEMENT Approximately two weeks before school was to start a group of Lincoln High students assembled at Forrest City Freedom Center to discuss the development of a group to represent students and seek change in the school. Out of this first meeting came the Students for Action Committee (S.A.C.). Officers were elected and the group was set up to function in a democratic way. Many S.A.C. members had previously been involved in the civil rights demonstrations of summer 1965 in Forrest City. 205 Source: Box 48, “St. Francis, Co.,” Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Papers, 1959–1972, Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Inc., Atlanta In the days immediately following this first meeting the idea grew among the students to develop a petition listing our specific suggestions for the improvement of school conditions. The petition was to be circulated among the whole student body for their approval and signatures and then presented to the school principal for his consideration. Over 1000 students supported the petition and signed it on the first two days it was circulated. In addition, a number of parents took it upon themselves to develop an informal parents committee to support the students. These parents went out into the community and gathered signatures of about 500 parents on the petition. On Tuesday, September 1st, the second official day of classes, we the S.A.C. students, presented our petition to Mr. C. T. Cobb, the Negro principal of Lincoln High, and spent the remainder of the day discussing our suggestions with him. Mr. Cobb admitted that many of the students’ suggestions were fair and require serious consideration. The petition has sixteen demands and is reproduced below: 1. No male instructor for girls’ physical education classes. 2. Teachers at Lincoln High School show a complete lack of concern for students who are slow at grasping the material than others. We want to initiate a program in which students will advance according to their comprehension. 3. Put an end to students working in the counselor’s office. Students should not have access to the records of other students. If the counselor needs help, someone should be hired to help. 4. More cooperation out of the counselor. Students tell the present counselor their problems and complaints. The present counselor then breaks this confidence by telling teachers what the students say. This is a breach of professional ethics. We demand the placement of a new counselor who has been trained in counseling students. 5. Put an end to teachers using profanity to students. If teachers continue this practice, we demand their dismissal. 6. Elimination of unnecessary fund drives. We demand to have an accounting of all fees that are gotten from the students, and also what happens to the money that is collected from the students. 7. An organized library program. The school board must immediately send for a representative of the accrediting association to tell the school what it needs to add to have an adequate library. 8. Elimination of unnecessary activities during class hours. 9. Immediate accreditation by the North Central Association. 10. A drama instructor. 206 AN OPEN LETTER FROM THE FORREST CITY (ARKANSAS) MOVEMENT (1965) 11. A school nurse who will be qualified to give dental, eye, and ear exams (some students do not even have small pox vaccinations). 12. Busses to carry students to school who live on the outskirts of town. 13. The school board...