In a State of Despair

He could hardly walk as his feet were twisted with arthritis. He lived alone, in dire need of several medical operations he refused to even consider. But over a half century before he was a strapping young coach who told a painfully awkward kid, when no one else believed, "yes you can."  Thank God, still in the living years, I told him of his impact on my life. That day he cried. He tried to hide the tears, but I saw them. School reunions allow us to revel in the past and share such memories, and their infectious bonds of love.

The last time Alice Jones Smith attended such a reunion, she set in front of her old schoolhouse and wept in despair. 

Alice Jones Smith is a 1975 graduate of Monroe City High School. She attended the Washington School for the "colored" children of the district through the third grade. In 1966, Washington School was closed, and the Monroe City district was fully integrated. Smith was assigned for 4th grade to the previously all white Monroe City Elementary School. 

Jones-Smith

The 1954 landmark Brown v. Topeka Board of Education US Supreme Court decision that ruled that racially segregated by law school assignments were illegal was not fully implemented in Monroe City until 1966, twelve years after the fact. In my research I found the only other school district in Missouri in 1966, besides Monroe City, that was defying the federal law was Charleston, a small southeast Missouri town a rock's throw away from Mississippi. 

Why did Monroe City hold out for so long? The high school accepted its first black students in 1956. The district had no choice. The Hannibal School District had in 1956 immediately implemented the federal law set forth by Brown v Board by closing its segregated all-black Douglas High School, to where Monroe City had for a decade bussed its Black high school aged students. So why did Monroe City keep Washington school open for Black elementary students for over a decade?

I heard from several whites in Monroe City that the district had given black families a choice and most wanted to keep Washington open and segregated. Ms. Smith was adamant and irritated in that this story is patently false and has been told for too long. "That is not true," she told me. "Maybe that makes some (whites) feel good today," she theorizes on what she sees as an attempt at historical revisionism. "We were never given a choice. We were told we had to go to Washington," recalls Smith.

The School Board had its hand played for them, Smith says, pursuant to its black high school students when Douglas shut down. "There were not enough high school age students for Monroe to have its own high school, so they had to integrate (the high school) in '56. But with Washington, they made a conscious decision to keep the elementary black and white kids from sitting in class together. That is not something people in Monroe City like today to hear, but it is true."

After her graduation, Smith moved to Springfield, IL. She was hired by the State of Illinois in May 1976 as an entry level clerk typist. She retired in May 2012 as a department supervisor. Over the years she took as many classes and received as much advanced training as was made available to her, as she moved up the state bureaucratic ladder.

Pruitt

Years ago, the Washington School building in Monroe City was sold by auction as excess property by the local school district, abandoned and forgotten like it would a desk it no longer had a need for. A group of Washington alumni, led by Howard Pruitt, organized to keep the school's name alive. In 1993, the building was bought by a private citizen and restored with federal funding grants and placed on the National Historical Register. 

Today, the red brick structure has been turned into a private residence that can only be described as a civic embarrassment.

Public Records show the building, at 529 Sout Locust Street, is owned by an individual Monroe City resident. I made numerous attempts to contact this man by calling six different phone numbers I found associated with him, all, numerous times, with no success.

For some reason, a hideous wooden fence has been erected to block much of the street view of the building. Numerous inflammatory political statements have been sloppily painted on signs near or attached to the structure - referring to dead black babies, Jews, Trump and Jesus. Trash is strewn everywhere. Numerous dogs call the yard home, their presence and smell quite noticeable from the street. The impressive stone sign recognizing the building's honored place on the National Historical Register is out of site. 

As repulsive as pictures of the current state of the former Washington School are, in person it looks much worse. Why does the city not enforce its own trash and littering ordinances? Can a building that was restored with public money and placed on the National Historical Register be desecrated in such a partisan way?

Howard Pruitt, President of the Founder of the Washington School Alumni Association says his group has tried to address the problem. "A lot of people are upset, alums of Washington, but also a lot of people, both white and black, who never went to Washington, don't like it. It makes the town look bad. Who would want to move a business here when you have such an open sore like this left over from a time no one should be proud of?"

"We have called the city to complain, a lot of people have," Pruitt continues. "It seems every time there is a funeral that will bring people back that have not been back for a while, the shock value goes up. How could anyone drive by that building today and not say 'what a dump?' And then when you find out it is on the National Historical Register, the anger really boils over."

Alice Smith says those who didn't suffer the indignity of Jim Crow, both black and white, just don't get it. "Even many of our younger blacks in Monroe City don't understand the deep symbolic hurt of what has been done to our school. When I came back to Monroe several years ago for a family reunion, I drove past the school, and it took my breath away. I had no idea this had been done. How could someone be so cruel as to deliberately taunt us like this?"

And that, White says is what the current owner is doing, taunting those who are proud of the building and how it symbolizes the spirit it took to overcome the indignity of segregation. "I pulled over to the curb," she remembers, "right there in front of the school, and I just broke down. I just wept." 

Real change never occurs in a vacuum, nor without a push. To paraphrase Frederick Douglass, power concedes nothing without a demand. 

Yes, we will today say, Jim Crow was wrong - very wrong, but that was then, now is now and there is nothing I can do today to right yesterday's injustice. 

Not my fault- not my problem. 

Wrong. 

Drive by 529 South Locust Street. 

There is something you can do today to make right yesterday's injustice. 

CONTACTS

Buildings that have by their owners been placed on the National Historical Register, such as the Washington School, and received federal funds for restoration, have to meet strict maintenance standards. 

At the risk of jumping down the bureaucratic government rabbit hole, I made some contacts. 

I spoke with Shannon Smith at the Region 4 Office of the National Parks in Omaha, NE. Her phone number is 402-661-1736. Her email is shannon_smith@nps.gov. She did not follow up with me, as she said she would, so I contacted the area supervisor, Annie Thompson, phone number 402-319-3902. I left her a message. 

I spoke with Chase at US Representative Sam Graves office, phone number 202-225-7041. He put me in touch with the field rep for Monroe City, Bryan Inchols. His email is bryan.inchols@mail.house.gov. I sent him an e-mail with pictures. 

Finally, I spoke with Tom Salisbury at Senator Roy Blunt's office in Kanas City. He seemed the most interested in being helpful. His number is 816-471-7141. His e-mail is tom.salisbury@blount.senate.gov. He also had me contact the head of Senator Blount's Columbia office, Sarah Graff. Her e-mail address is sarah_graff@blount.senate.gov. I sent both e-mails with pictures.

Regulations for buildings that receive funding through this federal program are draconian. If you want to slosh through the regulations, here they are: eCFR :: 36 CFR 61.4 -- State programs.  The Washington school's current state is in violation of so many federal regulations I will not try to list them all. 

I did not speak with the City of Monroe City. Not being a resident, I have no standing. However, I am not sure what the city could do (besides enforce its trash ordinances). There are so many violations of the rule and the spirit of the federal law, that is the level that needs to be focused on. 

I refuse to use cliches so I will not say "the squeaky wheel gets the grease." But, make some phone calls and send some e-mails.