Lainer HS Has Role in Civil Rights Struggle

A couple of other books that reference the role of Lanier High School teachers and students in the struggle to gain civil rights of Blacks are:

Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody, and

Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi by John Dittmer.

The latter book contains material about Gladys Noel Bates (LHS Alumna) and R Jess Brown, then both teachers at Lanier, and their efforts to gain equal pay and rights for Blacks. R Jess Brown later became a well known civil rights attorney for whom it has been proposed the new Federal Court House in downtown Jackson, MS be named. See http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-399
For a biography of R Jess Brown, see excerts from Congressional record at
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/record.xpd?id=110-h20070306-36&person=400299

Two More Books and Fred Banks Jr (LHS 1960)

Here are two books, one by a LHS graduate, Gilbert Mason (LHS 1945), that feature one of Lanier’s most endearing graduates and a legal giant who was one of the architects of  the dismantling of segregation in the Jackson Public Schools and throughout the State of Mississippi, Fred Banks Jr (LHS 1960).  Mr. Banks is still “young” and alive and well in Jackson, Mississippi.  All should endeavor to know or meet Mr. Banks as he is a living hero and graduate of Lanier HS who should inspire us all — especially Lanier Bulldogs.  Go to LHS web page for a link to Mr. Banks’ current whereabouts ; and do a “google” search on his name for several internet sites that recognize his many contributions and accomplishments.

The Hardest Deal of All: The Battle Over School Integration in Mississippi

by Charles C. Bolton  University Press of Mississippi
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi / Date: Jan 2005
This book is about the struggle to integrate public schools in Mississippi.
Page 215:
“As  Fred Banks [LHS 1960], an NAACP attorney who litigated many school cases, explained, the school integration fight was ‘the major thrust in breaking the back of governmental apartheid’ in Mississippi, an accomplishment that ultimately ‘affected other aspects of our society’ and ‘had ramifications way beyond just education.’ ”

Beaches, Blood, and Ballots
A Black Doctor’s Civil Rights Struggle
by Gilbert R. Mason , James Patterson Smith

ISBN: 1578062780 / Publisher: University Press of Mississippi / Date: Jan 2000 / Page Count: 256
This book, the first to focus on the integration of the Gulf Coast, is Dr. Gilbert R. Mason’s (LHS 1945) eyewitness account of harrowing episodes that occurred there during the civil rights movement.  The book also acknowledges the role and contribution of Fred Banks, Jr (LHS 1960)
Page 153:

“Then there was the young black attorney Fred Banks [LHS 1960] who came aboard to handle part of the [school desegregation lawsuits]  Fred Banks was a distinguished graduate of my alma mater, Lanier High School, and of Howard University Law School.”

Two Books with material about LHS students

Craftsmanship and Character: A History of the Vinson & Elkins Law Firm of Houston, 1917-1997.

by Harold Melvin Hyman - 1998 - 658 pages

Book gives history of one of country’s premier law firms and contains segment about the firm’s hiring of first Black lawyer, Sherman Stimley (LHS 1962).  E.g., page 408

“Team members interviewed a black student, Sherman E. Stimley. Certain V&E partners had met Stimley during the summer of 1972 while he was employed in the …”

Boom!: Voices of the Sixties: Personal Reflections on the 60’s

by Tom Brokaw - 2007

“[I]n Boom!, one of America’s premier journalists gives us an epic portrait of another defining era in America as he brings to life the tumultuous Sixties, a fault line in American history. The voices and stories of both famous people and ordinary citizens come together as Brokaw takes us on a memorable journey through a remarkable time, exploring how individual lives and the national mindset were affected by a controversial era and showing how the aftershocks of the Sixties continue to resound in our lives today.”

This book contains references to interviews in connection with Brokaw’s “Separate and Unequal” feature on Lanier High School.  For example, beginning at page 297 is a section on Charlene Stimley Priester (LHS 196_)  and Ouida Barnett Atkins (LHS Teacher), the daughter of former Mississippi Govenor Ross Barnett , the segregationist who among other things tried to stop James Meridith’s enrollment as the first Black student at the University of Mississippi. 

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