Ohio History Day entrant Lilia Stanton on the stairs of the Cuyahoga County Courthouse
Desegregating Cleveland Public Schools YO U N G E Y E S O N T H E PA S T
BY L I L I A S TA N T O N , O H I O H I S T O RY DAY S T U D E N T, A N D S H A N N O N T H O M A S
48 Echoes | JANUARY & FEBRUARY 2019
Lilia Stanton’s Ohio History Day project on the desegregation of Cleveland Public Schools in the 1970s immediately inspired her. “It impacted children my age in a city I lived in,” says Stanton, an exceptionally articulate and wise eighth-grader at St. Mark School in Cleveland. For her project, Stanton interviewed numerous individuals who experienced the desegregation, including Judge Anita Laster Mays, who was one of the first students to be bused to a predominantly white school. Judge Mays recounted the violent protests, and how people threw bricks, eggs and bottles at her bus. From these firsthand accounts of the process of desegregation, Stanton wrote and then acted in a 10-minute, one-woman performance that earned her a trip to the National History Day competition in Washington, DC, where she finished in the top 20 in her category. When asked about what we can learn from her project, Stanton says, “What holds true in the 1970s holds true today: Parents want opportunities for their children, and they see education and schools as a way to achieve opportunities.” HERE’S A PORTION OF HER PERFORMANCE SCRIPT: Scene: Girl at bus stop, 1979 “The bus should be here any minute. I wonder what my new school will be like. I hope that I receive a good education. My old school was way too crowded and did not have enough room for all of the kids who needed to attend it. Many of my friends’ younger brothers and sisters who were to start kindergarten were placed on a waiting list. The last I
Lilia Stanton with her award-winning Ohio History Day entry on the desegregation of Cleveland Public Schools in the late 1970s Images: Maureen Stanton
heard, there were 1,700 children on that list! Many parents wanted more schools built to solve this overcrowding, but my mom says funds were used to fix up and build additions on white schools that weren’t even full! I think that this is completely unfair. My dad says that I should be excited. Judge Battisti’s court order will give me more opportunities, but my mom is worried. She doesn’t want me to go to a West Side school because she thinks I will be mistreated because of the color of my skin. I don’t know what I want. Wait. Yes I do. I want to learn all I can so that I can have the future that I choose. Trying to learn in a crowded classroom on ripped textbooks limits my future. Hopefully, school desegregation will set a new course for me. I remember at my old school, I learned about the Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. Apparently, after Brown v. Board, segregated schools were no longer permitted. In spite of this, schools in Cleveland were segregated by race because of choices made by the school board. My mom used to stand outside of City Hall with lots of other parents
to protest the poor condition of schools on my side of town. She held a picket sign and demanded to be heard. Soon after, a friend of hers filed a lawsuit on behalf of her son, Robert Anthony Reed III. This was in 1973. It wasn’t until 1976 that Judge Battisti issued his opinion on the case. Finally, now, in 1979, the first round of busing is beginning and here I am, waiting for a bus to take me across town to my new school. I am nervous that I will not fit in at my new school and that this bus ride will be dangerous. I’ve heard stories about buses getting bricks, eggs and bottles thrown at them. I hope that my bus ride is safe. Oh, look! Here comes the bus now! <deep breath> Here goes nothing!”
Lilia Stanton of Cleveland, Ohio, attends St. Mark School, where she is in eighth grade. She loves playing sports, volunteering, acting in school and community theater productions, and being the middle child. Her favorite subject is science, but completing this project has fostered a new appreciation of U.S. history and government.
OHIOHIS TORY.ORG
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