More than just a building, Columbus' first black high school is a legacy

For generations of African-Americans in Columbus, Spencer High School was not just a building. It was a mission, a family and a legacy. It was the hope that children could have better lives than their elders.

As the city's first and for a time only black high school during racial segregation, it was the core of an extensive network of teachers, parents, ministers, merchants and others who saw education as salvation.

That legacy continued as the school site moved three times, the last in 1978 when it opened at 4340 Victory Drive.

The Spencer name could have disappeared then, as the school board in 1973 talked of renaming the new school and changing its green and gold school colors. But Spencer's broad network of supporters would not have it.

"We refused to allow them to put Spencer High School on the blacklist," one graduate recalled.

Remembered a teacher, "Everybody got up in arms. They were about to have the whole town burned down."

After some behind-the-scenes negotiation, the board relented. The Spencer name and colors would remain.

That triumph was evidence of the devotion and loyalty alumni maintained.

Many turned out at the school Tuesday night to hear Muscogee County School District Superintendent David Lewis pitch a plan to move Spencer High once more, to a new building funded by a proposed 1 percent sales tax. Some in the audience wore green and gold.

Among those present was former Carver High School football coach Wallace Davis, who graduated from Spencer in 1962.

In a later interview, Davis noted the reverence people still hold for the school's namesake, William Henry Spencer, whom Davis compared to black pioneers Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver.

Born the son of a blacksmith in 1857, Spencer got his initial schooling from Yankee teachers and later agreed to work for 50 cents a week for a man on the condition he get to attend school.

He attended Columbus' Claflin School, where as a student he taught a class. He started as a teacher in Harris County, then taught in Girard, now Phenix City, before he became a teacher in Columbus in 1875. He became superintendent of the county's "colored schools" in 1885.

He did not think whites should teach black children, because white teachers reinforced the notion that blacks were inferior.

When Spencer asked the school board for athletic facilities, he was informed that for blacks, "going to school was a matter of grace and not of right."

Spencer died in 1925.

In the 1920s, black students attended a school on Fifth Avenue that went only to the ninth grade. Leading black residents then renewed longstanding requests for a black high school, so families would not have to send their children out of town to finish their education.

The board finally relented and a bond referendum to build the new school passed in 1929.

It was built on 13 acres off 10th Avenue at Eighth Street. Named for Spencer, it opened Oct. 1, 1930.

Though classes in chemistry and physics were offered, the courses mostly were vocational. Brick masonry, auto mechanics, carpentry and plumbing for boys. Laundry, cooking and sewing for girls. The prevailing attitude among whites was that black students should be trained as workers, not prepared for college.

Superintendent Roland Daniel wrote, "It is my opinion that we should give little attention at this time to the preparation of pupils for college. Only a small percentage will attend."

A 1932 report said the school had a well-equipped science lab, a laundry lab with electric irons, washers and dryers, and a combination gymnasium-auditorium. It had 301 students and a glee club, drama group, football, basketball and track team.

In 1953, a new Spencer High School opened at 1830 Shepherd Drive, later to be Marshall Middle School. This is the building many alumni recall today, remembering the pride people took in it.

During a 2005 Columbus State University oral history project, 1963 graduate Nicholas Scott noted how adults drove students to succeed.

"You know, when we were young we were taught that education was the only way out, and you'd have to go get it. The parents pushed it; the community pushed it. The churches were very involved; the parents were very involved. There used to be a big PTA, band boosters. They came together to try and encourage the children, and they encouraged us. We were all pushed to get an education. It was a thing and they were going make sure that we got it."

Said Davis, "The education and the way the teachers taught and the effort that they put in trying to get you to know and to learn what was best for you to have a good livelihood, I think they were second to none."

The school was an integral part of an extended family. Teachers and parents knew each other; sometimes they attended the same churches. If students got in trouble, their parents found out immediately. The kids would be punished at school and at home.

Davis' strongest memories involve athletics.

"Spencer had a very strong, rich history of winning championships," he said. Its team could dominate the football field.

"Since I was around sports mostly, I do remember one year, our last year and the last game we played, we beat a team 90 to 0, and that was the highest amount of points scored in the state of Georgia by any school," Davis added.

He has fond memories of football Coach Odis Spencer, who in a quarter-century amassed 154 wins, 40 losses and 14 ties, with four state championships.

"There have been several outstanding football players, including Ernie Green, who played with the Cleveland Browns," Davis said.

A 1985 Ledger-Enquirer piece on Coach Spencer listed some of the players who played professional football. Otis Sistrunk of the Oakland Raiders, who Davis said turned pro right out of high school; Charlie Johnson of the San Francisco 49ers, Claude Brownlee of the Baltimore Colts; and Steve Reece of the New York Jets.

School district records show that as the board prepared to build the current school off Victory Drive, it referred to the new school in its plans as the "New South High School." The board voted Sept. 23, 1976, to maintain the Spencer name.

The new post-desegregation school drew students not only from Columbus, but also from Fort Benning and Chattahoochee County. The resulting diversity of its students was notable.

"Spencer is a melting pot because almost half its students come from Fort Benning, which draws people from around the world," the Ledger-Enquirer wrote in 1993.

The school was notable also for its champion rifle team, and it was the first Columbus school to ban student smoking on campus, ending the practice of having designated smoking areas for students.

Now school district leaders say the building off Victory Drive is cracking because it was built upon unstable soil, and Columbus again needs a new Spencer High.

The Spencer legacy must carry on, Davis said, referring to the school's origin.

"A man had to struggle and beg the school board and the school system to build a school so we wouldn't go out of this city and go far away to get an education to high school. Now it is in dire need of our help. Now all of a sudden people are beginning to question that legacy."

The superintendent has said $56 million in sales tax revenue would go to building a new Spencer.

To the people who cherish it, the school is priceless, Davis said.

"If we needed a billion dollars, I think there should be an effort put to maintain it. It just wouldn't be a fair thing for our race to do to allow this school not to be put on sound grounds, and to keep it alive."

This story was originally published February 14, 2015 at 11:23 PM with the headline "More than just a building, Columbus' first black high school is a legacy."