They'll Cut Off Your Project: A Mingo County Chronicle

Chapter 14

14 The outcome of the public hearing did not dampen the hopes of the Mingo County Citizens Committee for Education in its efforts to obtain free hot lunches for the low income students of the county. This committee, made up of delegates from all the community action groups, had first approached the Board of Education in September, 1967- At that time, Jerry Chafin had already signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act proposal , which indicated that the EOC and all its related groups were satisfied with the various programs outlined in the proposal. The Board of Education used this action as an excuse not [Q (und a free hot lunch program. When committee members first attempted to meet with Hershel Morgan, the superintendent, they had to wait forty-five minutes in a supply room that was also used for garbage disposal. The forty members were irate because of this treatment and because of the superintendent's lack of concern over hot lunches. However, Morgan did agree to see a delegation of eight of them at the next regular session of the board. In Mingo County, it was not customary for interested citizens to attend Board of Education meetings. In fact, the board always met in a small office in which there was hardly enough space for the fi ve members and Morgan's office staff. However, the eight members of the committee were permitted to crowd in. They presented a four-page proposal prepared in the meantime, asking for a free hot lunch program using ESEA funds to supplement the existing U.S. Department of Agriculture funds already allocated for the county's lunch program. According to research done by the committee, an additional :>100,000 could provide free lunches for the poor. The president of the Board of Education, Fred Shewey, one of the county's more affluent citizens, said that the proposal would be taken under advisement and that an answer would be relayed by Superintendent Morgan- perhaps within a week. Shewey then criticized the committee's l'ecent newspaper publicity. In a letter to the editor of the local newspaper, the committee chairman, Patricia White, had explained that the commiuee was concerned with (I) limited bus transportation, (2) unsafe drinking water, (3) inadequate teaching facilities, (4) the high cost of workbooks, (5) over· crowded classrooms, (6) the need for kindergartens in the public schools, (7) the shortage of education specialists in such areas as speech therapy, art, and music, and (8) the lack of funds for a free hot lunch program. Lafe P. vVard, the county's assistant prosecuting attorney , sided with his associate, Shewey, in denouncing the concerns, saying that "the publicity has caused apprehension at large among the people of this county" and that it was irresponsible of the group "to give publicity to something of this nature unless they were prepared to approach the problem." '93 Although they did not receive any encouragement at the Board of Education meeting, the committee members continued to study local school problems and to meet with parents . On several occasions, they also met with officials of the West Virginia State Department of Education . They vowed to pursue the free hot lunch program once the ESEA program for 1968 was redrawn. In the late summer of 1968, there was much discussion concerning the strategies that would be used against the Board of Education if it once again refused to include the hot lunch program in its ESEA proposal. This time, there were new considerations. If Floyd was to take over the EOC, he would eventually be able to capture the school board. Its members knew that, and feared it. The EOC needed all the support it could get from agencies such as the school board to oppose the take-over by the County Court. There had been some indication that the school board was will ing to draft a letter of support for the exist. ing EOC if the Committee for Education's demands for free hot lunches was dropped. But the issue was too impOi ·tant for compromise. It was decided to invite Robert Marcum, the ESEA county coordinator, to the next Commission meeting, at the end of the month, to discuss the new ESEA proposal. If the Board of Education once again refused the committee's proposal, additional action would be taken. A massive student strike by all low income students was discussed as one...