“Of all the disturbing incidents which occurred during the troublesome ’60s, none affected us so personally as school integration, which began in the fall of 1966. Since 1954 we had known that it would happen someday, but I guess we kept hoping it would not come until ours had finished school.
“An article in the newspaper on September 6 stated that seven Negro girls had made application to register for classes at Greenwood High School. Plans for operation of the Greenwood schools on a desegregated basis were released. It was stated that the [Greenwood Public School] board had been ordered to end the operation of separate schools for the Negro and white children with respect to the first, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth grades for the school year beginning September 1966 and with respect to all grades for the school year beginning in 1967. The plan also required that an adequate start be made toward elimination of race as a basis for the employment and allocation of teachers, administrators and other personnel.
“Since this was a ‘freedom of choice’ plan in which a student could transfer from a school they had previously been assigned to one in which they had been excluded in the past, we did not expect any widescale integration at this point. Three black girls registered to enter the senior class at Greenwood High School. They were Mayrene Washington, Willie Mae Lobe and Queen Edna Holmes.”