Meeting Monday to discuss Meridian schools, desegregation order

Many Meridian residents are hoping for vigorous discussion Monday night about an issue of supreme importance to the community: the quality, and the fairness, with which the community’s children are educated.

The NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund is hosting a “Town Hall Meeting for Students, Parents & Community Members” at 6 p.m. Monday, Dec. 18, at the Fifth Street Baptist Church, at 2530 Highway 45 North, in Meridian. Dinner will be served at 5:30 p.m.

The meeting is designed to encourage people to share experiences in the Meridian Public School District, according to an announcement from the NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund.

The coming discussion traces back to a desegregation case in 1965 that first involved John Barnhardt and others who initiated a lawsuit against the Meridian Separate School District.

The U.S. Department of Justice soon intervened, and in 1967, the United States issued a desegregation order to the school district.

“We just want to hear from the community and our clients and to hear what’s going on in the school district,” said Natasha Merle, an attorney at The NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund.

Merle said the decree from the 1960s has meant that the school district is “under the watch of the federal court to make sure they’re taking the steps necessary to rid the schools of the vestiges of discrimination.”

Meridian Civil Rights leader Roscoe Jones asserted the question he especially hopes to see addressed regarding the desegregation order.

“Why, after 50-some odd years, are we still under it?” he asked in a telephone interview. “There are a lot of unanswered questions.”

Jones harbors extensive and far-reaching experience with Meridian schools. He noted that he was part of an early lawsuit to integrate the schools and that he was transportation director for the district in the 1970s.

Jones addressed the Meridian Public School District’s School Board earlier this school year about the need for open discussion of the desegregation order and related issues.

Something he said he would like to see Monday night — in addition to a discussion of the “why” question — is a robust turnout.

“People need to show up,” Jones said, and later he added: “We’re not coming for a gripe session. We’re coming as a community.”

Meridian School District Superintendent Amy Carter also said she hopes Monday’s session will include a vigorous discussion.

“I think it’s an opportunity for us to be able to hear the community’s voice,” she said. “It’s an opportunity for us to hopefully hear a unified voice between the NAACP (Legal Defense & Educational Fund) and the school district. We’re in the business of educating children, and the NAACP is in the business of supporting our community’s children.”

She noted the importance of moving ahead.

“At this point, it’s about our moving forward,” she said. “There are many communities that function without the oversight of the Legal Defense Fund. Our local NAACP has a strong foundation and background in supporting our community, and I’d like to see us begin to build on that strong foundation in partnership with the school district. So I think — bottom line — it’s about us working together to do that without outside oversight.”

Carter said she will be out of town during the meeting for a family trip planned some months ago, but she said representatives from the school district plan to attend.

School Board President Gary Houston also emphasized the importance of dialogue — and also expressed hope that the district can “move beyond the decree.”

“I hope that we will have a constructive dialogue within the community on coming together to move the Meridian Public School District in a positive direction, to move beyond the issues that have plagued our district before. That we will have a unified voice, we will have a common goal for the success of our students. That we will leave with a unified voice to support our superintendent and our teachers, and that we will leave with a unified voice to support our students.”

He stressed the importance of a “common voice.”

“Our goal is to have a common voice so we can move beyond the decree because we have worked to satisfy many of the issues that have plagued our district,” he said. “It’s not where we are, it’s where we’re going. That’s our message.”