Gartrell Memorial High School is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places under Criterion A: Education and Ethnic Heritage: Black with local significance for its association with African American education in England in the 1960s prior to integration. The school came into existence through persistent and dedicated efforts by the African American community. Gartrell Memorial School was built on land donated by Jim Gartrell, one of the leaders of the school movement in England, and served as an educational center for African Americans in England from 1935 to 1960. The school suffered a terrible fire in 1960 and the current school buildings were constructed by 1962. Gartrell Memorial High School continued to operate as an educational institution until its closure in 1970, when it became a vocational training school for a brief time. The school also became the focus of a lawsuit against the England public school district for racially discriminatory salaries; white teachers were paid almost $1,000 more than the teachers at Gartrell. The teachers won a compromise in 1967 and received a raise of $670. During its period of significance from 1960 to 1970, Gartrell Memorial High School provided much-needed educational opportunities for England’s Black population, equipping them with the skills to be successful in their chosen professions.

Narrative Statement of Significance

HISTORY OF THE PROPERTY

The first organized, mass attempt to provide educational opportunities to African Americans came during the Civil War and the Union occupation of Little Rock, though efforts were largely unsuccessful due to logistical issues and funding. The Freedman’s Bureau then took up the cause following the end of the Civil War. They established 27 schools throughout the state and 24 Saturday schools. Despite their efforts, there were not nearly enough schools to meet demand.[1] Schools were segregated by state mandate with the passage of Act 52 of 1868, and African Americans were only allowed to attend schools designated specifically for them.[2] This created an environment where Black communities received paltry sums of public education funds, under-equipped Black schools, and drastically underpaid qualified teachers. Even as late as 1933, only 6.9% of African American children between the ages of 15 to 19 were enrolled in secondary schools, even lower than the average of 13.7% among the Southern states.[3]

The town of England in Lonoke County gained its first school for African American children in 1923. The school was constructed on the east side of England along the rail tracks in an area known as “Color Town” or “Hicks Row.” The one-room, wooden building provided space for 25 to 30 children, but it almost immediately became impossible to accommodate the number of students who attended school. Principal Emmitt Davis and Sarah Ruth Davis taught students for six years in the building, operating in shifts so that they could accommodate more students. The school burned down in 1929, and petitions to the landowner to rebuild the school were unsuccessful. Ministers of Black churches in the area agreed to lend their sanctuaries as impromptu schoolrooms until another school could be built. When the Davis’s moved away, the ministers, along with volunteers such as Doctors Allman and Boswell, taught the children.[4]

Parents and community members were rightly concerned about the impermanent schooling facilities for their children.[5] They sought a new principal and Mr. Jasper Harris from neighboring Jefferson County traveled to England to take the job in the mid-1930s. Harris channeled the energy of the community and helped form the England Association of Black Citizens alongside Henry and Jim Gartrell. The group began petitioning local and state government officials for funds to build a new school building. The Gartrell brothers traveled to nearby communities who had received money through the Rosenwald Fund to build their schools, seeking advice and knowledge about the process. They also went to the Arkansas State Department of Education and Black colleges to secure the correct methods and next steps to obtain government funding for a school building. After months of research, the association went to the local school district. Harris wrote the proposal and Jim Gartrell presented it to the school board. While no records exist of what exactly happened at the meeting, the outcome was undeniable. The association had secured the district’s approval and aid in constructing a new school. Jim Gartrell donated an acre of land between Washington Ave and Hickory Street for the school and by the end of the 1930s, a two-room school with hardwood floors and blackboards occupied the site. The school was named Gartrell Memorial School after the Gartrell brothers and served grades 1-9.[6]

The Gartrell Memorial School continued to grow during the remainder of the thirties. Mrs. Murphy, a teacher from Prairie County, joined the staff, and Professor D. J. and Mamie Johnson came to Gartrell sometime in the early to mid-forties. Mrs. Laura Burkes from Stuttgart joined the Johnson team in the mid-forties. During Professor Johnson's tenure the members of the local school board were persuaded by the parents of students who had completed the nine-year course of study to include grades ten through twelve to alleviate the added financial hardship of having to send their children to Little Rock or to another school district to complete the required course of study leading to a high school diploma. The parents' petition was approved thus Gartrell Memorial School gained the status of a high school. The school became known then as the Gartrell Memorial High School.[7]

After receiving its status as high school, two more rooms, an assembly area with a small stage, indoor drinking fountains, and bathrooms were added before Professor Johnson left in 1952. The school, however, still lacked many basic tools. Textbooks and surplus supplies were hand-me-downs from England High School, the community’s white public school. The teachers were given boxes of used chalk and student desks and chairs had to be repaired before they could serve the purpose intended. Many students sat two to a desk. The students in ninth through twelfth grades had to buy their textbooks, and most of them had to remain in the fields for longer periods of time after school to pay for them.[8]

Mr. E. I. Jennings was the next principal and he served from 1953 to 1955. Gartrell's student body and physical plant grew shortly after he became principal.[9] A cafeteria, a building for students in first through third grades, separate classrooms for students in grades seven through twelve, and a gym were added to the site. Grades four through six remained in the original building. The number of teachers at Gartrell increased to approximately twenty teachers, and the student population also grew. The nearby African American school at Allport was forced to close during the latter half of Mr. Jennings' tenure, and most of the students came to Gartrell to complete the remaining years that they needed to graduate. The Junior and Senior basketball teams received county and statewide recognition. The team continued its winning streak throughout Mr. Jennings' tenure and into the next administration.[10]

Mr. Willie Lee Jones became principal during the fall of 1955. He was known for his formidable intelligence and energy. A classroom for students with special educational needs and a shop class were added to the school during the latter half of his tenure, and Gartrell Memorial High School saw an 85% increase in college attendance of high school graduates during Jones’s principalship.[11]

A devastating fire destroyed the high school building in 1960 and the adjacent elementary school building was also demolished to make way for more modern and comfortable facilities. After seeing the school through a major rebuilding effort, Mr. Jones's administration ended in the summer of 1962. He was succeeded by Abraham Woodard, who served as the last principal of Gartrell Memorial High School until the school district was integrated in 1970.[12]

In June 1967, twenty-eight Black teachers sued the England school district for discriminatory pay. The Arkansas (Negro) Teachers’ Association, who represented the teachers, contended that Black teachers in England were paid almost one thousand dollars less a year than their white counterparts.[13] The England school board asked the court to dismiss the suit because “none of the Negro teachers [were] named in the suit as a plaintiff and that the ATA could not sue by itself on their behalf.”[14] The ATA accepted a compromise in October 1967. The teachers received an immediate raise of $670 with a promise from the school board that full equalization of pay would be implemented the following school year. Woodard received a flat raise of $1,000.[15]

Gartrell Memorial High School continued to serve its students through the period of slow desegregation. While the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case had established the unconstitutionality of the “separate but equal” doctrine, schools across Arkansas were slow to integrate, and as late as 1963, only thirteen school districts had integrated, the majority of which were in the northern part of the state or Little Rock.^[16] The passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 finally pushed many of the school districts across the South to file desegregation plans according to strict guidelines set by the federal Office of Education or lose federal funding.^[17]

The Justice Department named several school districts in a desegregation lawsuit in early 1970, including England, Holly Grove, Cotton Plant, and Bradley. The school districts had failed to file any desegregation plan and Judge Oren Harris in El Dorado “ordered the school districts to negotiate with federal officials.” England submitted their plan in late July 1970 and the plan was accepted by the Health, Education, and Welfare Office. The plan outlined grades 7-12 would all attend Morris High School, previously the white high school, and all elementary students would attend England Elementary School. Gartrell was slated as the location for the new vocational education school, and it was officially closed as a high school in the fall of 1970.[18]

The school operated for a few years as a vocational training school. The elementary school building was demolished by 1975. Gartrell Memorial High School is now the location of a daycare that operates out of the former High School Building and Gymnasium. The three other buildings are vacant and not in use. The Gartrell Alumni Association has plans to renovate the remaining buildings and have worked to obtain oral histories from former students and teachers of Gartrell Memorial High School.

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE

Gartrell Memorial High School is a significant representation of the evolution of educational facilities for African Americans, beginning with its foundation in 1935 to its closing as schools integrated Black and white students. Gartrell Memorial High School functioned as a vital part of the educational system in England during segregation, providing instruction to more than seven hundred students who used the skills they gained to lead successful and fulfilling careers. The school was also the subject of two civil suits filed by the faculty. Both suits ended with favorable outcomes for Gartrell’s teachers and Mr. Woodard. For its association with African American education in England in the 1960s, Gartrell Memorial High School is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places under Criterion A: Education and Ethnic Heritage: Black with local significance.