A Brief History of the School on Pine Street

The Pine Street School was first recorded in the Minute Books of the Conway Board of Education on May 21, 1892. It was referred to when the board elected S.P. Marshall to be the first teacher of the "colored public school." Professor Marshall was later elected principal of this school.

Trained black teachers were scarce during this time, and in Faulkner County alone, there were only thirteen employed black teachers. In 1984, only one worked in Conway. It was not hard to obtain a teacher's certification at this time though. Any person who had completed six grades of education and trained in the summer months could be put on a payroll. Wealthy landowners and business men in the community made up the school board, and they were responsible for the hiring of teachers. Black communities were considered to be unincorporated. This meant that teacher salaries had to be paid for by the county treasury. Salary scales were based on the taxes collected from this group. Black property ownership was small, thus small tax amounts were collected and black teachers were severly underpaid (Faulkner County 244).

Finally in 1923, Pine Street aquired two devoted faculty members. Preston Mattison became the principal, and his wife Florence was to become a teacher for this school. These two people along with Odessa Arnold, another teacher, made up the faculty of Pine Street.

In 1928, few public schools accomodated black high school students. Until 1930, ninth grade graduates from Pine Street had be forced to attend the Conway County Training School in Menifee if they wished to get a secondary education. Since the rules for compulsory attendance at school were ignored, and there were no boarding facilities in Menifee, few students pursued a higher education. It wasn't until the Depression that free schooling became an option when an excess of unemployed youth remained in Conway. To keep these youths from causing problems, a high school was established at Pine Street. This school was first mentioned in 1939's List of Accredited High Schools published by the Commisssioner of Education for the State of Arkansas. It offered 17.5 units: English, Algebra, Community Civics, World History, American History, American Government, Commercial and Industrial Geography, Physiology, General Science, Biology, Home Economics, Psychology, Trade and Industries (Faulkner County 245).

One of the reasons people began to show support towards the "colored school" in Conway, was largely attributed to the athletic abilities of the black students attending it. In 1939, this school's football team competed in the (black) state championships against Langston High of Hotsprings. Other extracurricular activities like choir, band, basketball, and baseball were also encouraged by the adminstration at Pine Street. This school continued to prosper, and later graduated its first class of seniors in 1941. Few black students, however, made it to graduation though due to early parenthood, farm labor requirements, and lack of transportation. This didn't stop the black community though. More teachers were recruited at this time, and funding was directed at the school.

Supreme court case decisions like Plessy v Ferguson and Brown v the Topeka Board of Education promoted the openings of black schools everywhere when integration seemed to be an impossible option for black children. Before, high schools had be opposed because they were expensive, taxation discouraged businesses, and high school educations made children despise labor. Now, the addition of a high school meant the black middle class would increase, thus reducing integratory pressures. All of these thoughts ended though when the incident at Central High School errupted in Little Rock, Arkansas. After this, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was introduced. This act gradually brought about integration. When this happened, the Pine Street School began to struggle. The school finally closed in 1969 (Faulkner County 246).

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