Progress and unity for Washington School Advisory Committee

May 18—The Washington School Advisory Committee has selected all of its final members, elected its chair, has a timeframe for its next cleanup event and has begun open, public monthly meetings.

The committee works with the City to analyze and make recommendations to City Council on the assessment, proposed design, renovation and the redevelopment of the Washington School building and grounds.

The Booker T. Washington School was the once all-Black school on West 12th Avenue in Stillwater, which was desegregated after the last class graduated in 1956.

The City acquired the closed and defunct Washington School building in 2022 with funds that were donated to the municipality, with the goal of historically rehabilitating and rebuilding the structures and grounds.

The last event to benefit the Washington School was a fundraiser and gala where its championship basketball team was recognized and $35,000 was raised.

Committee members include former Stillwater City Manager Norman McNickle, Stillwater Community Center Foundation Chair James Beckstrom, Oklahoma State University Professor Laura Arata, Gary Clark, Ann Houston, Calvin Miller, Kay Stewart, Thomas Fields, Jessie Sims and Clyde Wilson.

McKnickle said because of the Open Meetings Act, and "needing to get the committee squared away so as not to run afoul of the OMA" there have not been regular meetings since the committee was formed in early 2024.

But now, the plan is for the committee to meet the first Tuesday of every month, said Christy Driskel, speaking for the City.

"The meetings will concern the project's history, renovations and what its future use looks like," she said.

Meetings are announced, often with published agendas ahead of the meeting, on the City of Stillwater meetings page. For the WSAC, for the next year, the designation of "special meeting" is added to their standing schedule, Driskel said.

However, it is an open meeting and anyone can attend, McKnickle said. The meetings will be held at City Hall.

"It is our intent over the next several meetings to work on a plan going forward," McKnickle said. "We have some things for the building we know we need to get done pretty quickly."

The committee is scheduling another volunteer clean-up day, he said, probably in September.

"We didn't quite get finished with the last one. Our goal will be to finish getting the inside of the building cleaned up," he said.

Of note is that the WSAC has gained cohesiveness and momentum, and those achievements coincide with the 70th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas when — as written by the National Archives — on May 17, 1954, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren delivered the unanimous ruling in the landmark civil rights case.

The ruling was that state-sanctioned segregation of public schools was a violation of the 14th amendment and was therefore unconstitutional. This historic decision marked the end of the "separate but equal" precedent set by the Supreme Court nearly 60 years earlier in Plessy v. Ferguson and served as a catalyst for the expanding civil rights movement in the country during the decade of the 1950s.

Desegregation at the Washington School did happen because of the ruling, said Karen Washington, newly-elected chair of the committee, and who has been president of of the Washington School Alumni Association for 10 years.

"As was by law, Stillwater conformed and integrated. They did the high school first and then they did the grade school part, that's when I was there for a little while," Washington said, "but they did the integration in stages."

There were unintended negative impacts and fear felt by the students for those who had to leave the Black community though, Washington said. When the process began, the Washington School teachers were not offered any jobs where the students were going.

"The school was a family. It was the unknown to have to leave the Washington School where they were taught by the teachers that helped them move past the fact that people had been telling them where they had to go for so long," Washington said.

"They loved where they lived, and they loved their school and teachers, even though it wasn't necessarily equal to what the whites had. When they had to integrate and leave, none of their teachers were hired," she said.

Now, 70 years after the law was changed, does Washington believe progress in this city has been made?

"Yes, because I don't think Stillwater would have done it without the ruling," she said.

Washington believes the rebuilding of the Washington School and its grounds are a symbol of continued change and progress, and will represent the community's history upon completion.

"Our hope is that as a community, it shows that the Blacks' history here is acknowledged," she said. "This new project can make a difference."

She added there is a lack of trust that came from separating, and then desegregating the Black community here, but that people have changed attitudes.

"Let the past be the past, but not to the point where our history and our community are forgotten. Now it's time for the City of Stillwater to show the Black community that actions speak louder than words," she said.

Washington said teamwork will hopefully be the key "to all of our goals in preserving in our history."

She said, "We have a diversified committee — whites, American Indians and Blacks. I'm excited about where we're going."

There will be a Washington School reunion in July, which they plan to have every year, as all members are "really energized" to see the progress, she said.

"When it's complete, I think it will make the community whole," Washington said. "When you have a group of people that was a part of your history and you pretend they weren't, you're not whole. We're not whole until we resolve some of the history we tried to sweep under the rug for years.

"As a community we're at risk when we're incomplete," she said.

The final outcome will be a Washington School that becomes a vibrant teaching and learning community center of cultural and historical significance, which can share space and information in new areas of education, history, sports and special events in the City of Stillwater.

For more information on this project and other City projects, you can visit stillwaterok.gov/536/City-Projects.