Brownwood Civil Rights History

Brownwood marks 50 years since integration
By Celinda Emison / Reporter-News Staff Writer
September 9, 2005

Fifty years ago today, Allen ''Jim'' Reed earned a distinction in the Brownwood High Lions' victory over Stephenville during the first game of the football season.
The headline on the Abilene Reporter-News account of the game read ''Lions Trounce Stephenville; Negro in Tilt.''
Reed's role in the first game of the 1955 high school football season made him one of the first blacks to play on a previously all-white team in the Big Country and the state.
It's a distinction that has gone unrecognized over the years.
Earlier in 1955, in Brown vs. Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that separate schools for whites and blacks were unconstitutional. By the start of school in 1955, only a handful of area school districts, Brownwood being one of them, had decided to desegregate their schools.
Reed, now 68, and about 13 other students were the first blacks to attend Brownwood High. Reed, a Brownwood native who now lives in Wichita Falls, attended the R.F. Hardin School until his senior year in 1955.
Three of the first blacks to attend Brownwood High played on the football team.
''We really didn't know what to expect,'' Reed said. ''It was odd. I was surprised they accepted us.''
Reed remembers the game against Stephenville fondly. The newspaper article lauded his ''fine defensive performance'' during the second half of the Lions' 47-0 victory.
''It was really great to beat them that bad,'' he laughed.
Reed said he remembers several of his teammates, including Grady Chastain, now a Brownwood city councilman. Freddie Paul Williams and Charles Wilcox were the other two black players on the team.
Despite his contributions in the Brownwood-Stephenville game, Reed did not play all the games during that 1955 season. Back then, black players weren't allowed to travel with the team to away games, he said.
''That's just the way it was then,'' Reed said. ''Things were different in those days, and Brownwood was just a typical prejudiced town.''
Reed, a saxophonist, was also the first black student to play in the Brownwood High concert band, his wife Mary said.
Reed excelled in track. After graduating from Brownwood High, he tried to make the U.S. Olympic team, but decided to join the U.S. Navy ''to see the world.''
After retiring from the Navy in 1966, he worked as an electrician in a shipyard in Long Beach, Calif., until 1978. He later worked for the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the aftermath of a tornado that hit Wichita Falls in 1979. Since then, he has worked for a glass manufacturing plant in Wichita Falls.
Reed married his high school sweetheart, Mary Bagley, in 1959 and the couple raised two girls and three boys. They now have 11 grandchildren.
The Reeds still have family in Brownwood and visit often and attend events for the restoration of the R.F. Hardin School.
But he still looks back on his days as a Brownwood Lion with pride.
''Overall, it was a really good experience,'' he said.

Contact Brownwood staff writer Celinda Emison at (325) 641-8804 or emisonc@reporternews.com.
source: http://www.reporter-news.com/abil/nw_local/article/0,1874,ABIL_7959_4067230,00.html