ORCVB Newsroom --> Press Release
Green McAdoo Cultural Center
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Green McAdoo Cultural Center-On August 27, 1956, twelve young people in Clinton, Tennessee walked into history and changed the world. They were the first students to desegregate a state-supported high school in the south. Clinton High School holds the honor of having the first Black to graduate from a public high school in the South. It was a great victory for the Civil Rights Movement. Learn the fascinating history of the twelve and how they not only changed a community but a nation at the Green McAdoo Cultural Center.
On January 4, 1956, in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education, a Federal District Court judge suspended his previous decision in McSwain vs. Anderson County. Judge Robert Taylor ordered Clinton High School to desegregate for the coming school term.
Students and their families, preachers and teachers – the entire town – prepared for the change, and on August 27, 1956, most of the students gathered at Green McAdoo School and walked down Foley Hill. In the late spring of 1957, Bobby Cain, the oldest of the Clinton 12, was the first Black student to graduate from an integrated public high school in the South.
During the desegregation process, Clinton was inundated with people from outside the community who protested and agitated the situation, which eventually ended with the bombing of Clinton High School. While outsiders were set against desegregation, the community was determined to follow the “law of the land” that was established by Brown vs. Board of Education.
For more information on the Clinton 12 and the struggles of a community to maintain order and peace during one of the most trying times in our nation’s history, please visit www.greenmcadoo.org or contact the following:
Stephanie Wells Anderson County Tourism Council 115 Welcome Lane Clinton, TN 37716 800-524-3602 stephaniewells@yallcome.org |
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| Green McAdoo Cultural Center P. O. Box 1214 101 School Street Clinton, TN 37716 865-457-0055 |
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