CHS To Honor

Clinton 12 During OR/CHS Football Game

Clinton High School will make a special presentation during halftime of Thursday night’s (10/21) Oak Ridge/Clinton football game to formally induct all of the Clinton 12 into the Clinton High School Wall of Fame. The 12 students to be honored were the first 12 African-American students to attend a previously all-white Southern public high school, following the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown vs. Board of Education. Two of them have already been inducted: Bobby Cain, the first black male to graduate from an integrated public school was inducted in 2005, while Gail Ann Epps Upton, the first black girl to graduate from an integrated Southern public high school was inducted in 2007. The Wall of Fame was established in 2003 to recognize and honor alumni and citizens who have made outstanding contributions to Clinton High School and the community. Thursday’s inductees will include Jo Ann Allen Crozier Boyce, Ann Theresser Caswell, Maurice Soles, Alfred Williams, Minnie Ann Dickery Jones, William (Bobby) Robert Latham, Robert Thacker, Alvah J. McSwain, Regina Turner Smith and the late Ronald Gordon “Poochie” Hayden, whose honor will be accepted by his sister’s family. Clinton High Principal Eric Snider commented that because Oak Ridge opened the doors to Linden Elementary School to CHS students when Clinton High was bombed by segregationists in 1958, it seemed only fitting that the Clinton 12 be recognized during the Oak Ridge/Clinton football game. That game will be carried live on WYSH & WGAP beginning at 7 pm.