Grady High came into existance in 1947 a as a co-educational but racially segregated school. When the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education case ruled that schools must desegregate Grady entered a new chapter in history.
The process of desegregation was slow. At the peak of the Civil Rights movement, only 54 out of 45,000 African-American students attended school across racial lines in Atlanta. Each year, one grade was opened to black students, and only a few were admitted after passing stiff examinations. As one of only four schools involved in the integration process, Grady received its first AfricanAmerican students, Mary McMullen and Lawrence Jefferson, in the fall of 1961. Since they entered as seniors, these two students graduated the following spring but they had launched a new era.
Desegregation had an impact
on many aspects of the school. When the integration of Grady High
School came, police were on guard as the reporters and photographers
covered the arrival Of MCMullen and Jefferson. Everyone except
school personnel and students was barred from school grounds.
Parents were asked not to visit the school until after September
7, and to call the school only in emergencies. No riots or fights
broke out that day at any of the integrated campuses, thus marking
the way of action at Grady.
Sheila Pierce, Class of '75, was one of the first African-American cheerleaders As she cheered her way through her sophomore, junior, and senior years, she found similarities among all Grady students. "We had lots of spirit. We would have pep rallies every Friday that we had a home game Pierce said. Pierce never felt threatened or discriminated against. "My parents sent me to Grady because it was already diverse. The people were black, white, Asian, and Jewish. Everyone was welcome here," she said.
In recent years, the school has worked hard to fight more insidious racial threats found in greater society. African- American representation in the school's magnet, for instance, is above 50%.
Although rocky at the beginning, integration has ultimately strengthened the school.
At right: A Grady alumnus and student reflect on the early years of Grady High School.