The forced integration of the local school systems in 1970 created an enduring sense of loss for many Tipton Street High School alumni.
“You could say we were in a state of shock, segregation to integration,” Minnie Greer, class of 1965 and president of the Kosciusko-Attala division of the National Council of Negro Women, said. “We didn’t know what the powers to be were doing, what they were planning.”
Today, members of the Bobcat Organization (comprised of Tipton alumni) and the city of Kosciusko are working toward an agreement that would convey control over the old Tipton School building and property from the city to the organization.
According to many Bobcats, the hoped-for control would address an unresolved longing for a time and place that was at one moment and was not the next. There are strong memories of the school photos, trophies and other keepsakes being left on the side of the road and in dumpsters one summer day in 1970.
For Bobcat members, the school is both a symbol of the past’s harsh shift from one era to the next and a treasure brimming with rich, persistent memories. Those memories include the lifelong lessons imparted by the school’s educators.
“The teachers played such a big part and they were so special to us, that’s why we want to save the name of Bobcat,” Betty Johnson Gordon, class of 1966, said with much feeling. “People went on to college and became teachers, lawyers, doctors—everything—and it was from the beginning with our teachers that loved us and cared for us.”
The teachers and their impact are mentioned often by “Tiptonians”. According to Dr. Sam Johnson, class of 1964, the effort to have the school’s campus conveyed to the organization may be a direct result of a lesson the school’s teachers emphasized.
“Our teachers taught us to be involved and bring back to our community,” Johnson said.
According to Johnson, Tipton school teachers’ messages dispelled any of the era’s societal limits and planted in their minds the concept that challenges were to be overcome.
“Our teachers taught us we could be anything we wanted to be,” Johnson said, who graduated from Indiana University and the University of New Mexico. “We had hand-me-down books and some of them had the answers (written) in them. Our teachers told us ‘you’ve got to blank your minds out’ …So we learned two ways.”
According to Johnson, “preserving the legacy of color and negro teaching under Jim Crow (laws) and the segregation era” is an objective that the Bobcat Landmark Historical Foundation is carrying out. Author, Kosciusko native and Mississippi Hall of Fame inductee James Meredith’s doctoral dissertation revealed that the 1940s and 1950s Attala county black populace had the best teacher-to-student ratio of all similarly-sized areas in the nation.
Bobcat member Charles E. Hull, class of 1962, carried on that tradition and was Kosciusko High School’s first black principal, a role he served in from 1987 until 2002.
The history of the Attala County Training School, the Northside Elementary School and the Sam Young School are all part of the academic legacy preserved by the organization. The Attala County Training School, which was a wood structure, preceded the high school at the Tipton street address. The connection to the training school is particularly strong for Bervia Patterson Wiggins, a member of Tipton’s class of 1962. Her older siblings graduated from ACTS.
“At that time there wasn’t a high school available for students that lived in the country,” she said. “So, they (her older siblings) had to come into town and board with someone.”
Expenses for room and board were paid for by students’ parents.
There is a sense of duty to preserve legacy, but also one of delight for Bobcat members.
“Just some sweet memories here,” Virginia Clark, class of 1965 said. “I could write a book about it.”
Clark transferred to Tipton a year prior to the school’s cafeteria being opened.
“‘That old store across the street over there was Mr. Charlie Lynch’s store,” Clark said. “I would go over there, take a nickel and get ten windmill cookies. Reach in the jar…,” a comment that provoked a room-full of laughter. “I’d put them in a little bag, and at lunch time I would get a chocolate milk and that would be my lunch.”
“Oh my gracious,” Verna Adams said with a laugh when asked if she remembered her graduation day. Adams is a member of the class of 1960, the Tipton Street School’s inaugural class. She pointed in the direction of the gymnasium where the event was held, and recounted a large gathering of family, friends and gift-giving.
Rosie Selmon Patterson and Doris Yowk Phillips were members of the class of ’70.
“The last of the Tiptonians,” Phillips said. She attended Kosciusko High School for her freshman and sophomore years, prior to returning to Tipton to graduate. At that point, integration was not mandated, and attending KHS was optional. Phillips estimates that there were roughly 10 black students who attended KHS when she was there.
Returning to Tipton is something many alumnus do.
Bobcat reunions are held every three years and began in 1987. Until now, these events have been the focal point of the organization. This year’s 12th reunion hosted more than 300 former students. In addition to reunions, the site hosts wedding receptions, church events and meetings held by area social organizations.
The Bobcat organization has filed for recognition as an historic landmark with the state of Mississippi and is drafting plans to file for the same designation at the national level. Such a designation would qualify the organization to apply for state and federal funds that could be applied to renovations.Details of the agreement
between the city and organization are still being negotiated. It will require final approval by the Kosciusko school board.
Though the conveyance is pending, Clark still allows herself to imagine what a full-scale revival of Tipton Street High School could look like.
“I would like it to be a place where if you come into Kosciusko, you want to visit the Tipton Street High School,” Clark said. “A historical place where people can come, the doors will be open…”
And that is the hope: That the doors that closed in 1970 would open once again.
