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Issue 5 // Winter 2018 // McKinley High School Continues the Legacy
On a January afternoon in 2015, a motorcade of black limousines and SUV’s drove through Baton Rouge heading south, turning up the hill onto Washington Street. It did not turn right to the Alumni Center but left onto Thomas Delpit Drive, down the hill, eventually stopping at McKinley High School. Outside, along this route crowds stood, cheered and cried, because going inside the oldest African-American high school in the
state was the 44th President of the United States, the first African American to hold the office. As we begin our celebration of Black History we highlight some of those McKinley graduates who have dedicated their lives to ensuring justice for all. When President Obama said “the arc of the moral universe may bend towards justice, but it doesn’t bend on its own, his words reflected McKinley graduates, too numerous to name, who were nurtured at a school that insisted on excellence in all things as it encouraged graduates to stand up for the causes of social justice. To all those MCK graduates who risked, their livelihoods, their reputations and even their lives in the name of justice, we salute you.
On a January afternoon in 2015, a motorcade of black limousines and SUV’s drove through Baton Rouge heading south, turning up the hill onto Washington Street. It did not turn right to the Alumni Center but left onto Thomas Delpit Drive, down the hill, eventually stopping at McKinley High School. Outside, along this route crowds stood, cheered and cried, because going inside the oldest African-American high school in the state was the 44th President of the United States, the first African American to hold the office. As we begin our celebration of Black History we highlight some of those McKinley graduates who have dedicated their lives to ensuring justice for all. When President Obama said “the arc of the moral universe may bend towards justice, but it doesn’t bend on its own, his words reflected McKinley graduates, too numerous to name, who were nurtured at a school that insisted on excellence in all things as it encouraged graduates to stand up for the causes of social justice. To all those MCK graduates who risked, their livelihoods, their reputations and even their lives in the name of justice, we salute you.
McKinley Graduates Fight for Social Justice
Dr. Dupuy Anderson, WWII veteran, civil-rights activist and local dentist, participated in the 1953 Baton Rouge bus boycott, ran for mayor of Baton Rouge in 1960 (when African Americans did not run for such offices), and filed suit to desegregate the undergraduate division of Louisiana State University. As a result, his daughter Dr. Freya Anderson Rivers was one of six African-American undergraduates to integrate LSU in 1964.
Eva Legard, the first African American female member of the EBRP School Board and was a longtime member of the BR Council on Human Relations. Her role in politics began with her attendance at a school board meeting in 1980. called to decide whether blacks should be members. Approached by attorney Walter Dumas asking her to run, Mrs. Legard won the seat, which she held from 1980-1994. e University. As a result, his daughter Dr. Freya Anderson Rivers was one of six African-American undergraduates to integrate LSU in 1964.
Jewel Newman, politician and community organizer, brought Little League competition to Scotlandville. In 1972, Newman won three, 4-year terms on the EBRP Council as representative from the Scotlandville area. Later elected to the LA House, Newman served one term from 1984-88. His “Help Our People for EBRP program raised $14,000 through bingo games to keep open three food stamp offices in north Baton Rouge.
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