CLEVELAND – Two cultures uniting as one – that’s what leadership and many students at Cleveland Central High School say they want this new era to be about. Making that happen isn’t easy though.
That merging of cultures was challenged last week during homecoming when it came time to combine the two former schools’ traditions into one.
“Whenever you have a homecoming, there’s a lot of pride in both schools so naturally if it doesn’t go one way or the other, and someone wants it to go their way, it causes a little bit of tension. There was a little bit of tension leading up to homecoming which was to be expected,” said Randy Grierson, principal of Cleveland Central High School.
Grierson formerly served as the principal of East Side High School, where the student body was 99 percent African-American. In 2016, a federal judge ordered East Side to merge with Cleveland High School, which was about 60 percent African-American and 40 percent white. Federal Justice Department officials recently visited the district to track progress.
Cleveland Central High School is now comprised of about 25 percent white students and 75 percent African-American.
Some seniors, like former Cleveland High student Kathleen Green, expressed excitement about being the first student body to go to the new school’s homecoming.
“I’m so glad that me and all of my classmates can get together. It’s like a new vibe, and it’s like we’re growing closer every day,” said Green, a senior. “True, we have our challenges, and not everybody gets along, but in the end, homecoming is bringing us together. I love it.”
Green said homecoming week — culminating with the football game on Oct. 13 — started off stressful with not knowing what shirts they were going to order or if they would finish their float, but it all came together in the end.
Students from East Side though said they felt many of their traditions were sidelined – there was no coronation, no Mr. and Miss East Side, and the homecoming parade didn’t go through any East Side neighborhoods like it used to.
“It feels like everything has been accommodating the Cleveland High students,” said Konnor Short, a senior and former East Side student. “For instance, it’s homecoming week and it doesn’t even feel like homecoming because we’ve adopted all of their traditions and they don’t have any of our traditions from East Side.”
Short is one of the students that Mississippi Today will document throughout the course of “Behind The Headlines: Cleveland Central High” – a project aimed at letting people affected by the 2016 desegregation order tell their own stories.
East Side traditions not being incorporated makes students feel excluded, Short said, adding that he only feels pride at Friday night football games.
“Honestly, Friday night is the only night I feel any type of allegiance to Cleveland Central,” he said. “Other than that, I feel like it is what it is.”
Despite the challenges of feeling excluded, Short said all of the students get along well.
“Like I’ve always said, it’s never really the students because we tend to mesh well with each other. It’s mostly like adults.”
Another student being documented for the project is Olecia James, a senior who was crowned last week the first homecoming queen of Cleveland Central High.
“I wasn’t the homecoming type at first. If I was at East Side, I would’ve ran for Miss East Side. I was Miss Junior, Miss Sophomore, Miss D.M. Smith. I didn’t really do the homecoming court thing, but since we don’t have a Mr. and Miss Cleveland Central, that’s why I got on the homecoming court,” she said.
Grierson said that some traditions were cut because of lack of funding and lack of time.
“There were a lot of things that we used to do at East Side that cost a lot of money and we don’t have the budget built up for that,” Grierson said.
“I’ve had multiple phone calls in the week of and the buildup in the weeks before saying these things [about homecoming] and when I present the facts of what it takes to put these things on, people have a better understanding. And that’s the [case] with a lot of issues we had were generated from a lack of understanding or a lack of communication.”
He also said that a leadership group will be formed this year to start planning next year’s homecoming as well as new traditions for the students.
Homecoming in some ways added pressure to students and highlighted issues of equitable representation; other students saw it as a hurdle.
“When we got coming up to homecoming, then it got kind of strained,” said junior Ava Lubin, a former Cleveland High School student. “I feel like once we get away from homecoming then everything will be smooth again.”
Scenes from Cleveland Central High School’s first homecoming:
Photos by Aallyah Wright and Kelsey Davis
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
The fact remains that when we fail to plan, we plan to fail! This district has yet to produce a plan for this consolidation. They have yet to engage the entire community or parents in any decisions — they just tell you what they are going to do! The district knew in May, 2016 that a consolidated school homecoming was going to happen in the fall of 2017. So how can we claim we lacked the time? The order set up a whole 30+ person committee to facilitate the merging of the cultures. So why was one of the biggest mergers not planned for financially or time-wise? We need to get honest about the real issues in this merger. Things won’t smooth out — they will get worse as the people eyes are opened to the truth. Homecoming week opened lots of eyes! We can make this consolidation great for the entire community. It won’t happen by conducting business as usual. Yes, the kids do get along and that’s great! But there are other real adult issues that need to be resolved and will not just go away by saying the kids get along when kids are still receiving the same inferiorities they got for the past 62 years. Honesty and transparency matters. It’s time to move forward.
I am one of the citizen that questioned the parade route and told to consult with Buster B. Chief of Police, which I did and was left with the impression that the route would be the same as the Christmas Parade. This route has always excluded the East Side. Oh, let’s not forget, the other reason was October Fest would be set up on Sharpe Street. I am a member of the Black Community, 1963 grad of East Side and my class refused to participate in this scheme.
Hats off to the class of 1863 and the many others who choose not to be fooled by this fake consolidation! Blacks have never had any real voice in this District, and as the stage had been set, they never will! Very few supported us as we argued about almost every “head” position being staffed with people who would maintain the status quo! One student lamented that they have taken everything about East Side away! Actually, they have always relegated the black heritage! As with Cleveland High, black kids were in the building but they were not a part of the community!
What a great project! I look forward to reading more.