This is the fifth and last story in a five story series on the integration of the schools in Clarke County.
Zack Huggins
Before the schools officially consolidated in 1970, an opportunity was granted that allowed willing desegregation for anyone interested. While there weren’t many who chose to integrate, some families did choose to make history by doing so.
Jerrie McQueen was one of the ones who experienced attending both Shirley Owens and Zack Huggins High School before official integration.
“I went to Shirley Owens and Zack Huggins. I was in the last of the Zack Huggins class and had been there two years before it integrated. I went to Zack Huggins when I was 15, and they integrated halfway through my senior year. I have a ring that is Zack Huggins, but I graduated with Quitman,” recalled Jerrie. “I was only at Shirley Owens in high school for one year, but I attended all of my lower grades there. We went to Pachuta and then left Pachuta and came to Quitman. When they opened it up for everyone, my mom pulled all of her children out of Shirley Owens, which means my siblings under me started in the elementary and junior high. I went to the high school. At the time, they were having all the marches and meetings and everything. There was supposed to have been four of us, but when we actually went to the school the others dropped out. I went ahead and stayed at Zacks my sophomore, junior, and senior years. It wasn’t all bad, but it was kind of hard for 15 year old me.”
Attending Zack Huggins wasn’t really something she wanted to do, but her mother wanted to do everything she could to ensure that she received a good education. While it wasn’t really her plan, she did as her mother wished and made the historic change.
“It was rough, but she was determined that she was going to give us the best that she could. I was a young teenage girl, and I did not want to do it. Mom said I had to, so she moved each and every one of us. There were seven of us. My granddad, my dad, and mom went through those meetings, and she made us go,” remembered Jerrie. “Mother always strived to give us more than what she had. She only had a twelfth grade education, so she worked really hard to make sure all her children had an education. She sheltered me from some stuff, so I don’t know how much that she really had to go through, but I know what I had to do on my side.”
The transition wasn’t the easiest for her. She was the only black student attending the all-white high school when she was able to start attending. The other black student graduated just before she started. The school had a plan in place to protect her and make her feel safe when things became overwhelming.
“When I was called all the names you could imagine, the school worked with me,” declared Jerrie. “Coach Boone and some of the teachers were really good during those years. Coach Boone was really nice during that time. I felt like he would protect me if something were to happen in the school. When it would get really hard for me, they would find another place that I could go. They’d tell me if I was in class and got too many spitballs shot at me or too many bad names to let them know. There were rare times, but there were some times I would have to go and report it. They would give me another place that I could sit, and they would bring my lessons to me, and I would do my lessons. That first year was really hard, but the second year started getting better. Some of the kids started getting a little better. Some would still do all that stuff, but they didn’t want the other kids to know they were doing it.”
There were different classes and programs that Jerrie really enjoyed participating in at Zack Huggins.
“They used to have a Home Economics class at Zacks. They had a summer program that you could come in and participate and sew,” Jerrie reminisced. “They were always nice to me and made sure that I had a spot. My mom would let me come over and stay with my aunt who lived in Quitman at the time. I would go down, and they would help me learn how to make dresses, skirts, and quilts; they taught me how to sew. My mother always sold everything, but I got the chance to use different types of things and learn different techniques. I enjoyed that. They helped me go through the program and bought my material. All I had to do was just show up. I stayed on the other end of town and would walk down to the school every day and would then go back home.”
While she was able to participate in the academic courses and programs, she still didn’t feel welcome enough to participate in everything at the school.
“I went to junior prom, but I went to the one at Shirley Owens,” stated Jerrie. “When it came to my own prom, I didn’t have a chance to go to that.”
While at the school, she witnessed some of the antics that more mischievous students performed.
“They did turn pigs loose in the school. I remember that,” informed Jerrie. “Somebody had a parent that had a farm. The boys were really bad.”
Although she can remember the hard times some of the students gave her over those years before integration officially occurred, she has had some of those people make amends with her over the years since graduation.
“At the time, my last name was Hollingsworth. I can remember Ann Hollingsworth because I think she used to get picked on because we had the same last name. I can remember her and some other ones,” recalled Jerrie. “Through the years, some of the ones who gave me the hardest times would meet up with me and apologize. There was one boy who gave me the hardest time. He was the one who would pull my hair, put gum in my seat, or take my yearbook and write all those bad things in it. We ended up working at Burlington at the same time, and he came to me and said that he was so sorry. From that day on, we were okay, and I gave him credit for coming back to me and saying that.”
Overall, her experience at Zack Huggins could be described in one word: lonely. She learned a great deal, but being the only black in the school caused her to feel isolated and alone.
“It was very interesting. It was a hard time. I learned a lot,” proclaimed Jerrie. “I think the worst year was actually after it integrated. I was a 16 year old girl and was so excited because of all the black kids who were going to get to come over because I was so alone. There was another black girl, but she was down at the junior high, and the next year when she went to the ninth grade, we rarely saw each other. That first year that mother sent us there, which I had no choice, I was ousted from the black ones and never was in with the white ones. I was really alone.”
Her senior year was when all the major changes were set to take place. Integration was coming, and she was excited about the opportunity to possibly have more friends. She did see a change, but what she witnessed was not what she had anticipated.
“By my senior year, I was totally excited; I was just over the wall. I remember when we had the open auditorium, and all the Zacks students and Shirley Owens students congregated up in the auditorium. I was waiting and so excited,” declared Jerrie. “Some of my cousins were in about the same grade as I was, so I was able to sit with them. I was at that age where things that are said can still really hurt children. I was sitting on one end and could hear one of the black teachers ask why I was sitting over there with them and that I need to be back over where I’ve been the last couple of years. That’s when my eyes were opened up that prejudice doesn’t just fall on the white side; it also falls on the black side. That was part of my awakening.”
Despite things not going the way she anticipated, the transition from Zack Huggins High School to Quitman High School in January of 1970 was fairly smooth. It definitely wasn’t what was being portrayed in the media taking place in other areas.
“When Zack Huggins and Shirley Owens merged, it wasn’t half as bad as what people thought it would be in the Deep South. All we could see on the news was stuff about the KKK marches and what people went through when trying to sign up blacks to vote,” remembered Jerrie. “When they actually integrated, it wasn’t quite as bad. There were pranks and a lot of mind games, but there weren’t too many fights. I learned to stay out of the way. It really wasn’t that bad as far as the merging. They made them merge, but they couldn’t make them become one. They were in the same building but still had their own groups and committees. When they were planning for stuff like graduation and prom, the blacks planned in one spot and the whites planned in another.”
Since the integration occurred in the middle of the school year instead of at the beginning, there was a plan in place to help make the transition smooth. Everyone was now in the same building, but there was still a fairly noticeable separation in the school.
“The year really didn’t go too bad. In Quitman, I don’t remember a whole lot of fights. There was separation, but there weren’t fights. We were put in the same school, but we were still separated. At homecoming, we used to have black maids and white maids. They were still together but separate,” explained Jerrie. “Everything changed, and they uprooted everyone. I think that they left everything alone if there was a set curriculum and left the students with whatever teacher they had, because I never had a black teacher even though they changed over. Everyone was housed together, but I think they tried to keep it as close to what everyone was used to as they could. I didn’t have to merge over or lose any teachers; I just stayed where I was. I’m sure that next year was an interesting year for everyone without that layout.”
Jerrie was already acclimated to the school and maintained her same classes there. One of her class periods actually allowed her to offer a little more comfort in the transition to the students who had just moved over from Shirley Owens.
“My senior year, I actually worked in the office. I would answer phones, sign children in, and all that kind of stuff,” recalled Jerrie. “When school integrated, I was already in the office. Some of the black kids would come to me when they came in the office. If there was a white girl and then me, they would talk to me.”
Integration didn’t end her loneliness at the school, however. She didn’t feel welcome to attend events held by either the Zack Huggins or Shirley Owens students. That didn’t stop her from enjoying herself, though. She would do other things for fun instead sometimes.
“My senior year, I did not have a prom because the white kids would not let me go to the one from Zack Huggins, and the black kids who came over would not let me go to the one from Shirley Owens,” stated Jerrie. “That year, my parents let me go to Asheville, North Carolina, because I had a sister in college up there. That’s where I went during the prom.”
Fellow classmates have made an attempt in years past to include her since graduation. Memories of loneliness have prevented her from accepting their invitations of inclusion, however. She does value the friendship and loves those who she graduated with. Despite having no ill feelings and only love for those around her, she still chooses to not attend any class reunions for the class of 1970.
“Right now, I consider myself as graduating from Quitman Schools, but I do not have a class reunion,” proclaimed Jerrie. “In the past five years or more, they have one where the black members of the Shirley Owens class started trying to include me in it. It’s on me and my feelings, but I still can’t really go to it. I just decided I didn’t have a class and left it like that, so I don’t go to their reunion either.”
The era of Zack Huggins and Shirley Owens wasn’t always easy to grow up in. Each school has a rich history that former students still fondly recall. Quitman was blessed to see a smooth transition with integration. As long as students from each of the schools are willing to speak out and recall their memories, the legacy of Shirley Owens and Zack Huggins will live on as a vibrant part of Clarke County’s history.
