Charleston celebrates 1954 integration

The city of Charleston has honored its district's 1954 integration, the first public school to do so in the South, with a memorial. 

The memorial is located at 3527 W. Eucal Road in Charleston. It celebrates the district's July 27, 1954, decision to integrate Charleston Public Schools. The decision followed the May 17, 1954, U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, which determined that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.

On Aug. 23, 1954, 11 Black students – three ninth graders and eight elementary school children – attended class alongside 480 white students.

"The integration was peaceful, so it attracted little notice outside of the area," the memorial reads.

Barbara Dotson was one of the 11 Black students to attend school alongside white students. She became the first Black female student to graduate from the Charleston School District. 

Dotson described her time in school as mostly peaceful, although she did say that she and her fellow Black classmates did experience some bigotry. 

"Sometimes we got along with the people and sometimes we didn't,” Dotson said. She later added, "Sometimes they liked to hate us, and sometimes they didn’t."

Although no one ever tried to physically harm her, Dotson said that the white students did call her and her Black peers names.

Dotson said that many people thought that Little Rock was the first school to integrate in Arkansas, but that because Charleston integrated quietly people did not know about it.

“Charleston didn’t have no trouble like that," Dotson said about Little Rock's integration.

Fanny Williams Wesley said that Charleston integrated three years prior to Little Rock schools.

Tamara Wesley, the project manager for Voice Quality Solutions, worked with the Arkansas Department of Heritage to create the memorial.

“It was an honor to tell the story of the first African American woman who was admitted to Charleston High School, which was in Franklin County, Arkansas," Wesley said. "This individual, Barbara Williams Dotson, is a citizen of Fort Smith. I, myself, am a former resident of Fort Smith, Arkansas, and graduate of Southside High School, so it was just a pleasure to tell the story of a fellow Arkansan and fellow educator."

Wesley said it is still important to talk about integration. 

“I think it’s important because, again, this was in 1954. This is 70 years later. We’re still talking about the relevance of cultures interacting together and having access to education," she said. 

Alex Gladden is a University of Arkansas graduate. She previously reported for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and The Jonesboro Sun before joining the Times Record. She can be contacted at agladden@swtimes.com.