Beardsley was Knoxville's first junior high school for Black students | Opinion

Beardsley Junior High School was Knoxville's first Black junior high school and served the communities of Mechanicsville, Lonsdale and beyond. With school desegregation it began serving white students as well when it was paired with Rule High School in 1968. It began as Mechanicsville Junior High School on Western Avenue where the Edward Cothren Swimming Pool and the Mobile Meals kitchen now stand.

The cornerstone was laid July 25, 1936, with a large crowd in attendance. Built on land that had been a part of the Knoxville College farm, it was financed by the Public Works Administration, a federal program to aid in recovery from the Great Depression. It was the first of three new junior high schools to be erected that year with the aid of PWA. The total building program was to cost $578,000, with the city contributing $318,000 and the PWA granting $260,000. The Beardsley project cost $150,000.

Speakers for the dedication included City Manager George Dempster, Mayor James W. Elmore and school board chairman Fred Stair. School board member Gertrude Beardsley, for whom the school was named, also spoke. Six days before the ceremony, the Knoxville Journal reported a glitch in naming the school. It reported: "There is a bare possibility the new Negro Junior High School in Mechanicsville may not be called Beardsley Junior High School, despite the fact that the school board named it in honor of a board member, Mrs. Gertrude Beardsley.

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"Yesterday City Manager George Dempster received a letter from Kenneth Markwell, State WPA administrator, saying that no such building financed by the PWA may be named for a living person without the administration's approval. School officials, however, said they anticipated no trouble in getting the necessary approval."

Dedication speakers from the Black community included Hardy Liston, the dean at Knoxville College; Dr. Henry M. Green, former city councilman; and professor Charles W. Cansler, who had recently retired as principal of Green School. He would be named interim principal of the new school until 1939, when Monroe Senter became principal for the next 32 years. Senter was a Knoxville native and graduate of the 1919 class at Knoxville Colored High School. He finished Knoxville College in 1926.

A month before the laying of the cornerstone, Dempster showed his skills in operating a large machine at the groundbreaking ceremony. At first he used a shovel to turn some earth, then climbed aboard a steam shovel while reminding the audience he had a union card from his youth to operate it. He delighted the crowd in demonstrating how it worked.

The News Sentinel of Aug. 20, 1937, announced that night classes for white students would be held at Knoxville High School and for Black pupils at Beardsley Junior High School. School official H.J. Betts announced that the night schools were for adults 17 and older and "serve the taxpayer who is paying the bill." Classes ranged from English, Spanish and French to shorthand, bookkeeping and stenography.

Before Beardsley was established, junior high school grades were periodically added at Maynard, Eastport and Green elementary schools.

Robert J. Booker is a freelance writer and former executive director of the Beck Cultural Exchange Center. He may be reached at 865-546-1576.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Opinion: Beardsley was Knoxville's first Black junior high school