GDHSAA Quarterly Newsletters

About Us • Board of Directors •  Local Chapters •  Scholarships •  Newsletters • Events • Gallery • Memorials  

Let Us Spread the Word

Dr. Harris and Caleb Carson often receive information about the deaths of some of our Garyites.  Our hearts and prayers go out to those families. Such information will be shared in quarterly newsletters. Going forward please include the full name, place of residence, which part of Gary they were from, and what year they were affiliated with GDHS, etc. 

 There are other things happening in the Gary family that all would like to know.  There are happy occurrences taking place.  Maybe someone became new grandparents, or someone's child or grandchild is getting married or graduating from high school/college.  It would be great to know those things, too. President Harris therefore suggested that we have a newsletter that would share information with everyone on a quarterly basis. That way, we would inform each other about all that is happening with the Garyites. Your input should be emailed to Bill Madison (wfmadison1@gmail.com) not later than the 15th of the month prior the GDHAA Newsletter issue date, being the 1st day of the month, the issue publish date. The first issue was released on Thursday, April 1, 2021.

 So, if there is something newsworthy happening in your family, please share activities, such as, you are celebrating an anniversary, milestone birthday, work promotion, if you have made progress in recuperating from an illness, you can let us know that, too. 

Please take a look at the Quarterly GDHAA Newsletters issued to date.

 

President: Dr. Sandra Harris | Editor At Large: Bill Madison

The WV McDowell County Board of Education allowed for voluntary integration based upon the individual district. By 1957, the number of blacks Hi students attending integrated schools in the county was four times greater than the entire state of West Virginia in 1959. At the beginning of the fall term in 1958, black students were given the option of remaining at Gary District High School or transfer to the all-white Gary High School. 

Many of the students chose to remain at Gary District High School. In 1961, the West Virginia Human Rights Commission was formed after the West Virginia League of Women Voters, the NAACP, the Federal Civil Rights Advisory Committee, and the AFL-CIO lobbied the state legislature successfully. The Commission discovered that in 1963, there were eighty-eight all-black schools still operating in the state.

A meeting held in June 1964 by the State Board of Education found that only five counties still maintained all-black schools, including McDowell.

By early 1965, it had become obvious that McDowell County would need to do more than allow voluntary integration to previously all-white schools. Shortly after a consultant had published a scathing remark against McDowell’s controversial and discriminatory policies against black students, the county adopted a plan to merge its segregated school systems.

Black students at Gary District High School would attend Gary High School. The building would be repurposed as an integrated elementary school. The segregated school systems were merged by the spring of 1966. By the fall, all black students in the county attended integrated schools. The repurposed Gary District High School remained open for elementary students until it merged with a school in Welch in 1975.

For complete access to each quarterly newsletter, please click on the link below.

About Us • Board of Directors •  Local Chapters •  Scholarships •  Newsletters • Events • Gallery • Memorials