Julian Prince’s autobiographical book “Balancing the Scales” is cause for reflection on what was and what should have been.
The focus of the book, which I just read, is the peaceful desegregation of the McComb school system during Prince’s tenure as superintendent from 1965 to 1976.
It was a remarkable accomplishment — coming in the wake as it did of four years of civil rights violence in the McComb area.
I was there, working for the Enterprise-Journal at the time, with two children in the public schools, one graduating in 1976, the other in 1978, two years after Prince left to become superintendent in Tupelo. I can attest to the accuracy of the book.
Now 91, Prince grew up in Greenwood, where he attended the segregated public schools. After a year of college, he served in the military from 1945 to 1946 and then attended Millsaps College on the GI bill.
He and his wife, LaVerne, moved to Pike County in 1949 to begin their teaching careers, she at Summit, he at McComb. Prince earned an advanced degree at Emory University, served as principal of the high school and assistant superintendent.
In 1960, he became superintendent in Corinth until 1965, when he returned to McComb as superintendent.
By then public schools were being forced to desegregate by the federal government after a landmark Supreme Court decision in 1954 was followed by the civil rights movement and enactment of federal laws and regulations aimed at full integration of the races in public schools.
Prince had become acutely aware of deficiencies in public education, especially in the segregated schools for blacks, and was trying to do something about it. He also was an innovator on correcting those deficiencies and was cultivating relationships with federal bureaucrats responsible for monetary grants and civil rights enforcement.
Ku Klux Klan activity and anti-civil rights violence had subsided in McComb by late 1964. But it was still a tense time, and few thought the public schools could be desegregated without a lot of turmoil.
The McComb school board, composed of influential citizens with vested interests in the welfare of the area, was astute enough to see what was coming. The trustees knew the schools had to be desegregated, and they decided it would be advantageous to do it voluntarily at a deliberate pace instead of waiting for court orders.
Board president Frank Watkins of Summit, who had stayed in touch with Prince, persuaded him to take the superintendent’s job after the previous long-term superintendent retired.
Prince, with the backing and assistance of a strong school board and support staff, was able to bring in a plethora of new programs, including vocational and skills programs as well as computer assisted assessment and teaching, mostly funded by grants and federal money.
One of many heroes of that era, in my opinion, was Frank Watkins. He not only knew Prince was the right leader for the times but also knew how to push some buttons to head off trouble. Watkins was a savvy behind the scenes operator with a lot of influence with various segments of the community that he quietly and effectively wielded.
The majority of white parents stayed with the public schools, unlike in many other localities where the black enrollment was in the majority. Parklane Academy was established as a result of the public schools being desegregated, but there wasn’t the mass exodus from the McComb schools that occurred in some other places.
For a while, the McComb schools were being desegregated and improving at the same time.
But Prince was frustrated at times by demands for more haste to totally integrate by federal bureaucrats, no doubt egged on by some in the black community, and also by obstinate whites who refused to back the public schools.
“For me the bad side of the McComb situation was un-reconciled issues from the past,” he wrote near the end of his book. “There were community members who seemed unable to get over the time of troubles. An element in each segment of the black and white citizenry seemed to resist whatever the school district did.”
After a tornado in 1975 devastated part of McComb, including destroying the Otken school building, the district encountered a budget crunch due to inflation, loss of revenue and inadequate insurance. A referendum on a 3-mill tax increase for the schools was overwhelmingly defeated.
Prince, discouraged by the vote and questioning whether his credibility with the community had been “used up,” accepted an offer to become superintendent at Tupelo.
Ted Alexander replaced Prince as superintendent, and the schools continued to excel for several more years, claiming the title, for a while, of a “model school.”
But over time most of the whites, long in the minority, left the McComb schools, which are now struggling to regain the quality they once had.
There are various reasons for this. Among the culprits, I blame the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department, encouraged by some within the McComb community, for thwarting efforts to retain white students in the schools.
Also, of course, there has been too little support from the white community.
Whatever the reasons, it is sad McComb was unable to build on what began during the Prince administration.
The towns that are thriving in Mississippi these days — places like Oxford and Tupelo — are the ones with strong public school systems.
