The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education US Supreme Court decision ruled that the Separate but Equal Doctrine was Unconstitutional because there was incontrovertible proof that the separate facilities that were supposed to be equal were anything but equal. Schools had to be unsegregated. Integrated. And that was that.
But, “that was that” was not coming soon. Various states and various school districts, Including North Carolina and Cleveland County Schools, tried all kinds of tricks to avoid and delay integrating schools. North Carolina Governor Terry Sanford even threatened to shut down public education in NC. Cleveland County Schools said they had to build new schools before they could comply with the Supreme Court Ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. Remember folks, this was before School Merger. There were three school Districts in Cleveland County, Shelby City Schools, Kings Mountain City Schools and Cleveland County Schools. Shelby did their thing. Kings Mountain did their thing and Cleveland County Schools did their thing. This fact will soon become very important regarding the Auditoriums at Burns and Crest High Schools.
Now, I am going to narrow the discussion to how Burns and Crest High Schools came about without auditoriums and swimming pools.
First of all, the school board for the original Cleveland County Schools were cheap and school funding was taken directly from the Cleveland County taxes. There was NO School Tax at that time. Another very important point. Schools without auditoriums and swimming pools were cheaper to build.
Secondly, Burns and Crest High Schools were going to be integrated. In the mid 19-sixties Cleveland County had no experience with integration. TV News showed race problems all across the country and the Cleveland County School Board didn’t know what was about to happen if black and white students were suddenly thrown together, say, in an auditorium. Or a swimming pool. So, the answer was simple. Leave off swimming pools and auditoriums at Burns and Crest High Schools. So, that is what happened. Also, most county black schools, even the new ones that had been built in an effort to stave off integration, were sold off cheap to “insiders.” A corruption camouflaged by tones of racism. The narrative given was no white person would want their kids to go to a previously “black” school. In Cleveland County, there is always a narrative. A big lie to cover up the corruption. One might argue that most “racism” in Cleveland County is actually the product of corruption, not an overt act of racism. Chew on that thought for a while. I don’t think you can prove me wrong about that.
So, the unmerged Cleveland County Schools rocks along for a few years. Shelby and Kings Mountain High Schools have or will build swimming pools and auditoriums, often with Cleveland County tax dollar support. The County Schools integration problems don’t turn out to be as bad as expected. The unmerged County School Board decides they want auditoriums and swimming pools at Burns and Crest High Schools, just like everybody else. But the County Commissioners won’t spring for the additional costs like the Cites of Shelby and Kings Mountain did. Costs that often fell on “County” taxpayers too.
Finally, the unmerged county school supporters decide to go for a special school tax to bring in the bucks to provide facilities equal to Shelby and Kings Mountain Schools. They push for a tax referendum and finally get it passed. Up to 15 cents per hundred-dollar property valuation. The unmerged County School Board settles for a 10 cent per hundred rate to start with. To see how it goes in saving up construction funds for auditoriums and swimming pools.
But there is trouble in Paradise. Down at Shelby High School a black male student with several felony convictions and prison time for armed robbery is elected as Student Body President at Shelby High School. The self-proclaimed Shelby Country Club “Blue-Bloods” (all white) hit the ceiling. Something has to happen because THEY say it has to happen. And, it does. In the traditional Cleveland County corrupt way of doing things.
At this point, some might say that “There he goes again! That Robert A. Williams is making this up. That there is noting in the Shelby Star about this.” I would reply that they are right about one thing. I could NOT find one thing in the Shelby Star’s archives, although I remember it being the talk of the town. However, I did find two articles that I am attaching at the bottom of this article. One from the Orlando Sentinel and one from the Voice of America, of all places. Plenty of evidence that this is a fact. And also, plenty of evidence that the Shelby Star has scrubbed their records of this embarrassing happening in the City of “Peasant Living.” Read the two articles at the end of this piece. They are only a sideline to the thrust of this article, so I will stop here about the details of this incident. It is, however, not the end of effect of this happening.
The continuing and nasty controversy over the high ration of black students (who, according to the narrative) elected the convicted black felon to President of the Shelby High School Student Body caused the “Executive Round-Table,” a secret group of white “Executives” around town with an MO similar to a financial Ku Klux Klan, sprang into action. They composed a letter to the Cleveland County Commissioners demanding that the three school districts within Cleveland County be merged into one big district. Obviously for the purpose of busing black students out of Shelby High School and busing white students into Shelby High School to reduce the ration of black students at SHS. However, the narrative was “this would allow the reduction of duplicated positions among the three school districts and save money overall.” (Cleveland County is just full of lies.)