- School
- Segregation
- August 30, 1961
- City of Atlanta
- Location approximate
Northside High, desegregated Aug. 30, 1961
One of four white high schools that nine Black students entered on August 30, 1961, Atlanta's first public school desegregation.
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 reported that at Northside, Donita Gaines was the only student in her biology class who could explain the difference between anatomy and physiology. Northside High had opened in 1950 as a Fulton County school and came into the Atlanta system through annexation.
Today: The 1950 Northside High campus later housed North Atlanta High and is now Sutton Middle School's 7th–8th grade campus.