It was the last year of a decade fraught with social upheaval and change, one whose events were contrasting mixtures of war and peace, violence and love.
Half a million people descended on Max Yasgur's farm in Bethel, N.Y., to enjoy three days of "peace and music" that became known simply as Woodstock.
Sen. Edward Kennedy was involved in a car accident in Chappaquiddick, Mass., that killed secretary Mary Jo Kopechne, an incident that ignited coverup and conspiracy rumors for years and pretty much ended his presidential ambitions.
The Fifth Dimension was into the Age of Aquarius, and Dusty sang about her Son of a Preacherman. Butch and Sundance were robbing trains in the day while Jon and Dustin preferred to be Midnight Cowboys.
Neil Armstrong, commander of Apollo XI, made history by becoming the first man to set foot on the moon, uttering the infamous words, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
And here at home, Texarkana took its own giant leap that year on Kennedy Lane. In 1969, Texas High School graduated its first integrated class, with more than 100 black students receiving Texas High diplomas.
"Texarkana Independent School District chose to deal with that situation by having freedom of choice, whereby any minority student who chose to go to Westlawn, Pine Street or Texas High could do that," said Harold Abney, Texas High class of 1969 graduate and class treasurer, who was in town recently with several of his classmates to plan a special reunion.
"Texarkana Independent School District chose to deal with that situation by having freedom of choice, whereby any minority student who chose to go to Westlawn, Pine Street or Texas High could do that," said Harold Abney, Texas High class of 1969 graduate and class treasurer, who was in town recently with several of his classmates to plan a special reunion.
The 1954 Supreme Court ruling of Brown v. Topeka Board of Education struck down 1896's Plessy v. Ferguson case, which set the educational precedent of separate but equal. Brown opened the door for educational desegregation.
Dunbar High School, with the buffalo as its mascot, was the black high school in Texarkana, Texas, before 1968, the year total integration took place for the first time here. Thus the class of 1969 became the first to graduate integrated.
"Leading into the end of our junior year is when TISD decided we're going to finally fully heed the mandate of Brown v. Board of Education. Separate but equal was not the way, and states and districts were asked to proceed with all deliberate speed, so deliberate speed sort of zoomed in in 1968, because that is when en masse all high school students at Dunbar High School were assimilated in Texas High," Abney said.
Although total integration occurred in the 1968-1969 school year, some black students chose to attend Texas High earlier under freedom of choice. Beverly Burks, also a 1969 graduate, said she was one of only 10 black students at Texas High about three years before total integration, and for the most part it was a positive experience.
"In our first year when we went it was not as bad as when everybody had to come because I think they (teachers and administrators) were trying to make sure everyone felt comfortable coming to Texas High. Everybody was really, really nice to us," she said.
Burks said she went to Texas High because her parents made her.
"Our parents were at work, and we could walk four blocks (to Texas High). Why walk two miles (to Dunbar)? So our parents said you're going there whether you want to or not. But if it had been our choice, I'm sure we would have stayed at Dunbar," she said.
Leaving Dunbar for Texas High brought about mixed emotions, feelings and experiences for both black and white students. They had to adjust to new classmates, a new school and new situations.
"The time had come for black and white students to attend school totally in TISD together, and we bore the brunt of that situation. I don't think it made us bitter, I think it made us better," Abney said.
Tony Patterson, another Texas High 1969 graduate, said black students wondered why they were assimilated when other schools were still segregated.
"That 'all deliberate speed' was the call of the day, but it really wasn't until after we got over there and learned that there were still cities in East Texas, like Marshall and Tyler, that were still segregated, and even across the state line, Washington High was still segregated, and I think even the Liberty-Eylau district and Macedonia were still segregated. So what was the big rush was the question that really started to percolate in our minds," he said.
Not only were they moving into a strange, unsettling situation, they were also leaving a lot behind.
"We were coming off of a state playoff situation (in football), and the Texas High Tigers hadn't been doing so well," Patterson said. "We felt like we were a positive addition, if you will, to the situation."
But that wouldn't happen right away.
"We did have some broken hearts at that time over some things," Abney said, "captains and cheerleaders and things like that, because all those things were set when we got to Texas High. They were already done. Cheerleaders were chosen for that year; football teams were in place."
While the integration process turned ugly in many schools in other towns, these classmates would be more apt to describe the process they went through as difficult.
"It wasn't a fistfight everyday, it was just a question of our trying to find out where we fit in and what we could do to become a part of that," Abney said.
"There were students there that did not want en masse black students at Texas High. I think that was out of fear, the fear of the unknown. They didn't know us, we didn't know them, but the integration process taught us that we're all people, black, white, blue or green."
Although Texarkana did not experience the violent demonstrations seen in places like Selma, Ala., it was no Haight-Ashbury either. The city, like other southern locations, followed the separate but equal code regarding public places. For example, it was common for blacks then to be barred from walking in the front door of a restaurant, and served from the back door instead. Some businesses had a water fountain for whites and another for blacks. A doctor's office might have a white waiting room and a black one.
"There were certain sections of the city, you just weren't found over there at night, and you pretty much weren't found over there in the day unless you were doing what I was doing, which was mowing someone's lawn," Abney said. "I remember getting on the bus and you move to the back of the bus. But we began to do better than that."
Yet even in those divided times, the gap between the races was bridged from time to time by random and anonymous acts of kindness. While growing up, these classmates had seen three churches in the black community, Mount Orange, Mount Pisgah and Sunset, suffer significant fire damage.
"I was a member of Union Hill Baptist Church, and Mount Orange and Union Hill started having services together in Dunbar auditorium," Patterson said. "It was made known throughout those churches and the black community that someone within the white community rallied to provide the funds and finances to rebuild those churches."
The graduates credit integration with being the first major stepping stone on Texarkana's path of desegregation. The white and colored signs began to come down, and gradually the city began to accept an integrated society.
"Texarkana was changing by bits and pieces. There was no great leap, I think it was gradual. The most revolutionary was the integration of the schools because everybody has an interest in the local high school ... and I think that served notice in this community when our class was there," Abney said.
The former Dunbar students found that their white counterparts could be not only accepting, but sympathetic, to their situation.
FedEx-Kinkos chief executive officer Gary Kusin, 1969 graduate and student body president, said he admired the way black students assimilated into Texas High, particularly under the leadership of Abney.
"If you can imagine learning the high school you had grown up in, and everything pointed to you graduating, was crushed, and someone said nope, you've got to go across town with people you don't know, and they may not like you-that's an enormous burden. I can't believe the way it managed to work through. It was due in large part to Harold's leadership," he said.
Wake Village Elementary principal Rick Sandlin, 1969 graduate and senior class president, said he recalled the former Dunbar students as being "a great group."
"It was a great year and great students were there, but I look back and if I were going to be a cheerleader or class officer (at Dunbar), it would have been disappointing. I can understand them wanting to get together," he said.
The Dunbar students also realized integrating was going to be a new experience for everyone involved.
"I think it was difficult for everybody concerned on both sides of the fence," Abney said. "I think the white students at that time did not know what to expect; we didn't know what to expect. And there was not a venue to bring us together to talk about that."
As with most new situations, bad experiences occurred along with the good ones.
"There were negative experiences, and as with those experiences some are more blatant than others. The less blatant experiences were probably more common," Patterson said.
"Yes, there were some ugly scenes, people saying ugly things, but nothing is to be served here and now to dig that up," Abney said. "There were many students at Texas High that sought African American students out, befriended African American students, people like Rick Sandlin, Gary Kusin, Bruce Hargrave, Dennis Landreaux ... and we welcomed that. And I think for the most part that happened."
Kusin agreed.
"There were a lot of kids that went out of their way, both white and African American, to be helpful," he said.
Abney, Burks and Patterson say even though some experiences were negative, Texas High helped shaped their futures in a way that better prepared them for the world.
"You go to sleep a Buffalo and you wake up a Tiger. That was a traumatic experience," Abney said. "Undoubtedly we went to better facilities-there's no question about that-it was just different in some cases to find your way.
"I think there were indelible impressions made at Texas High, in terms of new vistas. I mean there was a big, wide world out there and for me. I developed relationships with some of my white classmates that perhaps had I been at Dunbar I might not have had that experience."
Burks, a retired telephone technician, said her first year at the telephone company was "really worse than going to Texas High."
"We had already been in a situation that we had to deal with, so it just made us better to deal with the situation out in the world," she said. "It helped us; it opened some doors for us and taught us how to deal with a lot of things we would not have dealt with."
Abney agreed.
"Our experiences at that time socially were centered within the African American community. We had a black school, there were churches and things like that, and so our experiences, our relationships, were in that arena," Abney said. "When we got to Texas High that arena opened up."
While attending an integrated high school helped black students to face challenges upon graduation, Dunbar was a more personalized experience.
"We feel like we might have lost some things. We not only had these people as teachers, but we went to church with them, they were our friends. When integration came, we lost some of that personal relationship," Patterson said.
Burks also said Dunbar personnel were not just teachers, but neighbors and church members.
"... we didn't always just see them in school, but in our everyday walk of life. They wanted us to have respect for ourselves and others, good morals, everything, not just at school because, when you got to school, you couldn't say, 'that's my neighbor'-he was worse on you than anyone else," she said.
Since these former Dunbar students attended an all-black school for 11 of 12 years, they have decided to organize a 35-year reunion for their black classmates Aug. 7-8 in Texarkana, with a memorial service scheduled that Sunday at Dunbar.
"I have attended every Texas High reunion that's existed, I'll be at the 35th. But now we're looking to bring our class within a class together. For whatever the reasons, the times I've been there there's not been a big participation by African Americans in the big Texas High class reunion, and we think that's a travesty," Abney said.
"We don't have an ax to grind with Texas High, we just want to see our classmates. Really the driving motivation for what we're doing is simply wanting to see our class members," Patterson said.
Burks, Abney and Patterson all say a call for the black student reunion is not meant to snub Texas High's reunion, but to gather the graduates they grew up with before integration took place.
"Our hearts and our minds go back 45 years ago, and we think about Old Sunset, Grandview, Rose Hill. We had friends when we met up at Dunbar and those friendships had been cemented. Looking at it from that standpoint now, we want to gather that class that was within a class and get back together again to see one another," Abney said.
"We're just here to get back with the classmates we had all the way back to elementary school, and kindergarten for some of us," Burks said.
"I don't want any of my classmates, associates or friends who attended Texas High to be offended by this call for this group of students to get together. This is a clarion call to reach out to our classmates, the class within a class. I'm not saying we were in a segregated class but our hearts were together in that class, and we found our way through; we broke new ground for others to come behind us," Abney said.
"I kind of look at it as medicine-you have to take it to get better sometimes," he continued. "It's pretty bitter when you start out. We survived, we persevered and we succeeded. There was success within that class. Our going to Texas High was the taking of medicine to try to heal the ills of society and we took it very well. We're better people for it."
