Old Marion Anderson High School

The old Marian Anderson High School building (along with the gym and elementary school) in Brinkley has been torn down in recent years.

Located on Grand Avenue in my Eastern Arkansas hometown, the school was where Brinkley's African-American students were educated until integration finally reached us in the early 1970s. Incidentally, the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas case declared that segregated schools were unconstitutional way back in 1954; the infamous Central High School desegregation happened in 1957. Almost 20 years after segregation was found to be unconstitutional in public schools, Brinkley schools were integrated and the Marion Anderson High School was no longer used as such.

Instead, the old building with its high ceilings and hardwood floors became Brinkley's junior high school. It was there that I attended the seventh and eighth grade; I had attended fifth and sixth grade in the former elementary school right there on the same property.

Years later the buildings were deemed unsafe because of asbestos and the seventh and eighth grades were moved to the high school and fifth and sixth grades to the elementary school.

I find it interesting that at the time I was attending the old Marion Anderson High School as Brinkley Junior High, I was aware only of the name of the school. I did not realize that it had been the local high school for African-American students nor did I know who Marion Anderson was.