John Shearer: Getting To Visit With Riverside High Class Of ‘72

During the 1971-72 school year, the Chattanooga City Schools began an even greater desegregation push to get in line with the court order that had been in place before the 1962-63 year.

 

Many students who had attended a historically black high school like Riverside were now zoned for such schools as Chattanooga “City” High, Brainerd and Kirkman and enrolled there.

And while many white students were to begin attending Riverside to create racial balance in all the schools, that did not really occur, although several white faculty members were moved there.

 

As a result, the Riverside High senior class of 1972 found itself smaller than previous classes.

 

“It was very disruptive,” remembered Dorothy McReynolds Doss, a member of the Class of 1972, while several dozen classmates recently gathered for their 50^th anniversary reunion. “Our class size went from 300 down to the 100s. There was not an inflow in, but there was an outflow out.”

 

Despite that, she said they managed to not only survive, but also even thrive, as the class took pride in its accomplishments that even included winning a third state championship in five years in basketball.

 

“It was still a good time,” she said. “The teachers were still dedicated to us. (The late faculty member) Samuel Lee told me several years ago that he felt like we were his own children. He had an interest in us. He tried to present us with things we had never been exposed to like photography.”

 

And even some of those students who did get scattered elsewhere still felt a part of the Riverside Class of 1972. An initially disappointed James E. Smith, for example, was sent to Brainerd for his senior year, but eventually realized feelings were more lasting than rulings.

 

“My classmates always reached out to me,” said the former TVA employee and local postmaster, who fondly remembers a Ms. McKeldin as an excellent teacher at Riverside. “Technically I graduated from Brainerd, but my soul is still a (Riverside) Trojan.”

 

It was in that spirit that members of the Riverside High Class of 1972 held their 50^th reunion from Sept. 9-11. While many are a little more gray-haired now that they are in their late 60s, it was the blue and gold of Riverside High that was most on their minds that weekend.

 

Some had come from hundreds of miles away and had hardly been back in 50 years, while others have remained in Chattanooga. But they were all as one again, as 50 or more classmates greeted and caught up with each other and reminisced.

 

The weekend-long event included a Friday night meet-and-greet gathering and Saturday night banquet at the Doubletree Hotel in downtown Chattanooga, as well as a Saturday afternoon tour of their old school on Third Street where Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences is now. The weekend concluded with a Sunday service at New Zion Baptist Church on East M.L. King Boulevard, where classmate and former local basketball coach Frank Jones delivered the sermon.

 

I ended up finding out about the reunion from coach Leroy Alexander, who had stepped in as a young recent college graduate to coach the basketball team to a state championship that year after the expected coach brought in as part of the desegregation efforts quickly left. I had interviewed coach Alexander and star player Frank Jones and some others back in the late winter and early spring when doing a series on the great Riverside basketball teams of that era.

 

I had been talking with coach Alexander in recent days about another story, and he told me about the 1972 reunion. As a result, I was able to meet up with class members when they toured the school that Saturday after getting their picture taken on the front steps of the historic school that first housed Chattanooga High.

 

I had a blast talking with several of them, as they were all very polite while offering their memories. And for me, it was an education as much as a reporting assignment. I was fascinated to get a close-up look back at that period that in 1972 I had observed from a distance both culturally and in age as a white sixth-grade student at the independent Bright School.

 

I also quickly picked up from the 1972 Riverside graduates I was able to interview that they saw growing opportunities for themselves at a time when the world was changing, despite the imperfections that existed and still exist in terms of racial prejudices and outlooks.

 

As evidence, this class has produced chief financial officers, military officers, coaches, preachers, healthcare workers and others. The class president, Jared Threat, went on to work at the Pentagon as an Army officer after graduating from Tennessee Tech’s ROTC program.

 

“I was in the medical service corps,” the current Northern Virginia resident and now-retired veteran said. “I did medical plans and operations throughout my career, which led me all the way to the Pentagon. It was very interesting there. You get to see the world from a totally different perspective.”

 

Mr. Threat, who had some uncles who also served their country in the Air Force, also enjoyed the perspective he had at Riverside that was passed on from such encouraging faculty members as science teacher Samuel Lee, math teacher Mr. Bradley and a Ms. Bell. The latter had taught his mother, he said, and assistant football coach Adkins had also coached his father.

 

He played football under head coach Calvin Sorrells and baseball, but the tenseness before a game was not quite as great as the admitted pressure that he felt of serving as class president after being elected.

 

“I knew it was a large responsibility,” he said. “I went three years here and got to know a lot of different people. I was involved in Student Council, the Library Club and they tried to do a little photography club, but that wasn’t very big.”

 

He called the overall school experience great. “All the teachers, the principal, the assistant principal, they tried to give us time,” he said.

 

He jokingly added that he thought he was going to be the only Riverside graduate at Tennessee Tech when he enrolled, but seven of his classmates also were there during that freshman year. The college recruiter had evidently done quite well for himself in his work at Riverside.

 

Overall, Mr. Threat believes he and his classmates were ready for college and the world – both academically and in the changing environment slowly evolving for black people.

 

“The world has changed, but I felt like I was being well prepared,” he said, adding that he had also gotten a good foundation attending J.B. Brown Junior High and Central High beforehand. “I felt like the opportunities were there.”

 

Mr. Threat joked that he has not really been back to Chattanooga much since 1972 and now gets lost downtown with the way the city has changed so much.

 

Another classmate who now lives out of town, Gary Visher of Cincinnati, noticed that the faces of Chattanooga have changed a lot, too, and that inspired him to gather everyone together and take a lead in the reunion planning.

 

“I have had a lot of people from college and high school years start to pass away, and once you realize you are not going to see individuals anymore, it makes you want to get together with those on this side of the dirt and fellowship,” the chief financial officer of Hightowers Petroleum Co. said. “Then I realized the 50^th anniversary year was coming up and we needed to do something, so I reached out to several people in Chattanooga. I said, ‘We’ve got to start organizing.’ ”

 

Among the graduating women besides Ms. Doss who also came back for this planned reunion was Fabra Maffett Smith. She was full of happy memories as she reminisced by the front steps of the school after a photo had been taken. And the memories included all the school spirit students had.

 

“I remember how we all had pep sessions and they would call us to the gym, where we could come into unity of mind and have that team spirit and we could stand behind the school and represent the school,” she said. “I also remember how we supported each other, and we were always there for each other, and we always depended on each other.”

 

That support was not just in activities like a sporting event or the band’s participation in the Armed Forces Day Parade, but also in more serious matters like being able to get something to eat to avoid hunger.

 

“They would sell different things in the classroom, so as you were changing classes, you could stop in the classrooms and maybe get a tamale or something like that,” she said. “They don’t do that anymore, but they used to. If you were hungry, you had the opportunity to stop and get something so you could stay alert in class.”

 

Ms. Smith, who was a lifeguard/swim instructor at the Henry Branch of the YMCA and at East Lake and Warner parks and worked in the dental clinic at the Dodson Avenue Health Center for 30 years, said she was enjoying seeing her classmates and seeing how everyone has changed and grown.

 

Chattanooga has changed as well, she said, both in terms of more development resulting in fewer trees, and in other ways she does not see as totally positive. That includes the disappearance of the sense of community among residents.

 

“We don’t have love that we had in the community anymore,” she said. “When I was coming up, we walked everywhere. And everywhere you went, people knew you. Your parents supported you and made sure you stayed on the right track. Today if you say something, they are liable to cuss you out or shoot you. But when we were growing up, everybody helped you.”

 

But the feeling and confidence from the community and school that she could go on to be anything she wanted has lasted, she added. “They let you know there were no limitations.”

 

As an example of that, classmate the Rev. Gary Davis went on to have G.W. Davis Drive near Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in the Eastdale area where he served for 30 years named for him. He also attended the reunion and said the school environment did help him feel confident as he pursued a vocation.

 

“It prepared me to be able to interact and socialize with those around me,” said Mr. Davis, who now lives in Atlanta after later serving a church there before retiring again. “We had such an atmosphere with our teachers and with each other. It brought you out of that shyness that you might have had.” He went on to add with a wink, “But I wasn’t shy.”

 

Classmate Ms. Doss, who was carrying around one of the small 1972 yearbooks, the Trojanaire, added that the school also produced some fun times, although one humorous incident from science class she remembers was purely accidental.

 

“We were doing an experiment in lab,” she said. “I had used a pressure cooker. It had sealed itself, so the teacher told me to loosen the lid a little bit and heat it up slightly. I heated it up a little too much, and the lid blew off and hit the ceiling and put a hole in it and the mark is still there.”

 

Ms. Doss, who went on to work in a hospital lab and blood bank in Montgomery, Ala., and also do social work for the state of Alabama, has been back to Chattanooga only minimally since 1972. But she thought the old Third Street school still looks good. That is, of course, except for her mark on the ceiling.

 

Kenneth Boddie, who was wearing a smile and reminiscing in the lobby of the school during the tour, thought the classmates looked pretty good, too, as he stood among them.

 

“I am very proud to be a part of this class,” said the former Highland Park resident, who went to school with some of his classmates since the first grade. “I love every one of these folks.”

 

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Jcshearer2@comcast.net