| The originals constitution of the State of Georgia adopted in 1777
stated that schools should be erected in each county and supported by the
State. It was ninety-one years later at the Constitutional Convention of 1868
that the establishment of public schools was made mandatory. Professor Gustavus
J. Orr prepared the laws for the State School System and was appointed first
State School Commissioner.
The City of Atlanta took under consideration the establishment of public
schools in 1852, but due to divided opinion the project was not successful. Six
years later on September 10, 1858, a public meeting was held and a committee
petitioned the City Council to establish public schools. Again it was not
successful.
On September 24, 1869, Alderman D. C. O'Keefe introduced a resolution in the
City Council to investigate the establishment of public schools. A committee
was appointed and on November 26, 1869, Council adopted the resolution to
establish public schools. One December 10, 1869, a board of education was
appointed and on July 22, 1870, a bill was introduced in the State Legislature
to permit the establishment of the public schools in Atlanta. It was approved
September 30, 1870. On December 8, 1870, the proposal was submitted to the vote
of the people and was approved. Work was quickly commenced on school buildings
and by January, 1872, three schools buildings were completed. Mr. B. Mallon, of
Savannah, was appointed Superintendent. One of the members of the first board
of education was John H. Flynn, a prominent Catholic. He was also a member of
the first investigating committee appointed.
Seven public schools were opened in 1872. Ivy Street Schools was the first
public school opened in Atlanta. It was opened on January 31, 1872. Boys' High
School, then at the southwest corner of Whitehall and Hunter Streets, was
opened on February 1, 1872. Girls' High School, near the same location, but
occupying a separate building, was opened on February 5. Crew Street School and
Walker Street School were opened February 21. Decatur Street Schools opened
February 27, and Luckie Street School opened February 29, 1872.
Although this was by no means a bad beginning for a new undertaking, the
public school system has advanced until Atlanta has now one of the finest
public school systems in the state. We all have visual evidence of these
institutions in every part of the city, schools for both white and colored
children.
Many of the most efficient teachers and principals in the public schools of
Atlanta have been Catholic ladies.
In 1870 a census of school children between the ages of 6 and 18 years gave
the number as 3,345 white and 3,129 colored children. The initials attendance
when the public schools were established in 1872 was 1,844 children.
In the early days of the public schools of Atlanta there were no diplomas
given to those who completed their high school course. They just finished their
school course, took their books and left the school. At the exercises
commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the public
schools in 1872 the surviving members of the first graduating class of Atlanta
Boys' High School were presented with diplomas.
|
