Atlanta Daily World

White Students Are Given Brewton School Promised To Laurens County Negroes Negro Parents Are 'Promised' A Second School

DUBLIN - (SNS) The Brewton School will be filled with white students this fall while Negro students, for whom it was constructed, return to sub-standard, leaky structures until a second "promised" building is put up.

The Georgia Board of Education voted Monday to construct a new school building in Laurens County to replace the one which has gone unoccupied since white residents objected to its use by Negroes.

And with this promise, Negroes held a mass meeting, and voted to send their children to present schools until this building is completed, officials declared.

Thus an old story apparently begins anew. Negro parents were promised the Brewton School, which was remodeled as a relief from the two leaky wooden structures youngsters had been forced to attend.

But that building has gone empty since partial completion, when George P. Whiteman halted funds to finish work. He later released funds after his act had apparent political consequences, but they were later blocked by the state board.

The new school is to be placed upon a tract of land 12 to 15 acres, which was offered by board member Herschel Lovett. It is to be a structure valued at $305,000. It will be located near Mount Zion.

Funds for this school will come from the school building authority, and the money will eventually be returned to the authority by Laurens County.

During the months last summer when it was undecided what to do with the school the probability of white students taking over the Brewton school was never mentioned.

Whiteman declared he withheld funds because of danger to Negro students, but open objection at that time had apparently been voiced by only one white tenant farmer and his wife.

Public opinion had been offered often that the school was not given to Negroes because it would make them have a better institution than white students.

Reason for giving white students the school was this: That although there are not now enough whites to fill up the school, it is believed a new textile plant will be constructed near the area and an Air Force base built. Hope of these two places to provide needed students was given as reason for turning the school over to white students.