Grady High, desegregated Aug. 30, 1961

The record

On August 30, 1961 nine Black students entered four white Atlanta high schools under a federal court order (Judge Frank Hooper's 1959 ruling): Thomas Franklin Welch, Madelyn Patricia Nix, Willie Jean Black, Donita Gaines, Arthur Simmons, Lawrence Jefferson, Mary James McMullen, Martha Ann Holmes and Rosalyn Walton. Of 132 students who applied to transfer, 10 were chosen. The Sibley Commission (1960) had advised accepting Judge Hooper's decision while offering measures that would let schools remain largely segregated. Time magazine called Atlanta's move 'the smoothest token school integration ever seen in the Deep South'.

Today: Renamed Midtown High School, still on the same campus beside Piedmont Park.