'The legacy still stands.' Northeast High School alumni celebrate 52 years of activism
From one generation to another, through 52 years worth of change, a spirit of activism persists at the former home of Northeast High School.
Alumni returned to 3100 N Kelley, now Classen High School of Advanced Studies at Northeast, to commemorate the school's history and their 1970 march to the state Capitol.
Alumni who attended were among the first Oklahoma City Public Schools students to racially integrate in 1968. Northeast desegregated after optometrist A.L. Dowell sued to contest the denial of his son's transfer into the school, which was majority white in the 1960s.
Social issues have bled into the schoolhouse ever since.
Class of 1971 graduate Terry Fife said bomb scares and death threats were a weekly occurrence.
"I don’t even know how to communicate the level of pushback that this overall community gave, and by community, I mean the 'majority-race' community," Fife said. "They did everything in their power to sink desegregation, as we called it at the time."
A 1970 school bond election became a target for opponents of integration. For the first time in the district's history, a routine school bond proposal faced organized opposition.
The stakes hardly could have been higher. The $16 million bond decided half of the district's $35 million operating budget. Without the revenue, Oklahoma City schools would have had to cut the following school year four months short, district leaders at the time said.
High school students across the district feared the bond's failure would prevent them from graduating on time. To gather support for the bond levy, Northeast students marched from their school to the state Capitol, passing out flyers and knocking on doors along the way.
"The marches all over the country, the civil rights activities that were happening everywhere, we were feeling that here," Class of 1970 graduate Carl Wamble said. "When (students) got here, we just came together so well. We were really a consolidated organization of students that when the time came to do the march we said, 'Yeah, let's go.'"
About 400 students participated. Many carried signs urging residents to vote in favor of the bond.
"My mom’s driving me to school. I’m 16. There’s snow on the ground. It’s Jan. 26, 1970, and we come up over the hill and the whole student body is out on the campus," Fife said. "Next thing you know, we’re marching to the Capitol."
The mill levy passed the following day amid dramatically high voter turnout.
Friday's festivities took place a month before the largest bond issue in OKC district history appears on the Nov. 8 general election ballot. The $955 million package, promising improvements at every district school, needs at least 60% support to pass.
Classen SAS students carry on Northeast legacy
Northeast closed during sweeping school consolidations in 2019, and Classen SAS High School at Northeast moved into the building.
Renaming the school after Classen SAS stirred significant controversy, culminating in a lawsuit from the Northeast High School Alumni Association against the school district. An Oklahoma County district judge dismissed the case in January.
More on Northeast High School: Former principal Melvin Todd, a 'giant' in Oklahoma education, dies after contracting COVID-19.
Despite frustration in the not-so-distant past, alumni, students and district officials gathered Friday for a festive unveiling of the Northeast Legacy Plaza in front of the school. The school district unveiled a monument depicting Northeast's Viking logo and fight songs.
"I feel the loss (of Northeast) because it wasn't as it was, but it's also an improvement. It's moving forward," Class of 1970 alumna Doris Johnson said. "I can appreciate the controversy, and I'm glad that the legacy still stands that people speak their mind and they come out and lobby in a positive way for what they want and what we want our legacy to be."
1970s alumni then passed a baton, literally, to student leaders at Classen SAS, handing down the school's spirit of advocacy to the latest generation.
Classen SAS students seem up to the challenge. In November, dozens of them held a march to the Capitol to protest the death sentence of Julius Jones. The governor ultimately commuted Jones' sentence to life in prison.
"We are taking a legacy and spreading it all over the world because a legacy doesn't stop whenever students graduate," junior Nazgol Missaghi said in an address to the alumni. "We are the future, and I hope that we make you proud."
Contributing: Staff reporter Jessie Christopher Smith
Reporter Nuria Martinez-Keel covers K-12 and higher education throughout the state of Oklahoma. Have a story idea for Nuria? She can be reached at nmartinez-keel@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @NuriaMKeel. Support Nuria’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Northeast High School alumni honor 1970 march to the Capitol
