Vol. 44, Issue #4
The
February 8, 2019
Knightly News
p. 4 Meet Pace’s Unsung Heroes
p. 10 Terrys Make School Rivalry Work
p. 16 Boys Basketball’s Season of ‘Firsts’
The First ‘Black Knight’: Pace Academy’s Integration Story Kalissa Greene
Staff Writer Class of 2021
principal Bob Chambers, who was in charge in Kaley's absence, conducted an interview and administered an entrance exam. Chambers then called Board of Trustees Chairman Russell Bridges to notify him that the boy had passed his entrance exam. The board met that afternoon, and within 20 minutes they voted 13-0 in favor of admission. Mr. Gannon wrote that the board members "then spent the next three hours listing which families would stay and which families would leave to determine if the move would sink the school [financially]." Most of the families did decide to stay, although the school had previously budgeted and hired staff for an increase in enrollment that year. That enrollment increase did not materialize, leaving the school on shaky financial footing. Pace was also worried about “backlash and violence” from their community when integrating, according to Mr. Gannon. He describes Atlanta private school integration as having “lots of resistance and then people suddenly thought maybe we should do this.” Mr. Gannon’s research has helped him appreciate “how far Pace has come in our 60 years” with his long lens of history of the school. “Some of what
Photos: Pacesetter and Lisa Greene
Where were you in 1969? Many were watching the Apollo 11 launch while others were enjoying Woodstock. In 1969, Judge Clyde L. Reese III was just 10 years old and starting sixth grade at Pace Academy. This fall marks the 50th anniversary of the arrival of Judge Reese, his cousin Marsha Reese and her cousin Alonzo Brown at Pace Academy. They were the first black students to graduate from Pace. “There weren't any other black students there for us to interact with,” said Judge Reese. “Except for my family, there were no other people who looked like us.” He recalls having to “get used to” the only black people on West Paces Ferry Road being maids getting on the bus at the end of the day. He remained one of only a handful of black students up to his graduation from Pace in 1976. Brown vs. Board of Education, the landmark Supreme Court case declaring that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional, was decided in 1954. The integration of Atlanta Public Schools began in August 1961
with the enrollment of nine black students at four all-white high schools. Head of Upper School Michael Gannon’s 2004 Master of Arts thesis, “From White Flight to Open Admissions: The Founding and Integration of Private Schools in the City of Atlanta 1951-1967,” offers insight into Judge Reese’s integration story. It examines how Atlanta’s private schools dealt with the societal changes during this era. Mr. Gannon chose this topic because of his observations of the complicated and slow public school integration process in Atlanta. In terms of private schools, Westminster was founded in 1951 and Pace opened in 1958. Although founded much earlier, in 1926, Lovett denied admission to Martin Luther King III in 1963. All three schools were marked as “segregationist white flight schools” who were “really slow and really late in the integration process,” according to Mr. Gannon. Pace first integrated in 1966 with a kindergarten student. According to Mr. Gannon's thesis, in July 1966 while Headmaster Frank Kaley was on vacation, an application for admission was made for the young African American boy. He arrived at the school with his parents, and high school
Judge Reese is pictured in his senior year at Pace in 1976 (left) and today in 2019 (right). I learned informs my decision making today,” he said. The story of Judge Reese and Pace starts with cousin Marsha Reese who lived in Atlanta with her family. Judge Reese’s father decided he would move his family from Florence, South Carolina and join his brother, Marsha’s father, in the real estate business. His family operated Brown and Reese Realty, one of the first African Americanowned residential brokerage firms in Atlanta. Young Clyde
Reese arrived in Atlanta three weeks before school started not knowing where he would go to school. While Judge Reese’s older sister by four years was allowed to go to public school, Westlake High School in Southwest Atlanta, he was encouraged to join his cousin at Pace Academy. “When they told me they didn’t have football, I didn't want to go,” he said.
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Students Represent at Model Arab League Isabel Battista Staff Writer Class of 2021
Photo: Helen Smith
(L-R) Seniors Ahsan Hennings and Devan Johnson prepare for Model Arab League 2019.
While most students were at school on Jan. 24 and 25, three freshmen, two juniors and seven seniors spent their day at The Marist School participating in 2019’s Atlanta High School Model Arab League (MAL). With 22 countries represented, Pace was able to obtain two delegations, Morocco and Libya. This allowed a more diverse group of students to participate, with Pace delegates from three
out of the four upper school grades. Last year, Pace received an Honorable Mention for its Qatar delegation, and several students received Honorable Mentions and Outstanding Delegate awards for their work. Historically, most of the students who go to MAL are students of history teacher and Model United Nations (MUN) sponsor Helen Smith’s AP Comparative Politics class; however, the addition of Pace’s second delegation allowed the opportunity for students from
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