Making a Way: Ulysses Byas, First Black School Superintendent in the Southeast, and His Fight for Educational Reform

By Marilyn Robinson

Making a Way traces the life of Ulysses Byas from childhood through his tenure as the first black superintendent of the Macon County (Alabama) Schools, as told to coauthor Marilyn Robinson. This biography relies on extensive interviews that Dr. Robinson conducted with Dr. Byas, as well as an examination of his collection of documents.

Dr. Byas unique experiences and skills informed the strategies he used to attack the fiscal deficit, the physical plant deterioration, and the educational performance deficiencies he found as superintendent of the Macon County Schools. His professional life was dedicated to using creative approaches to addressing problems brought about by segregation and the policies of separate but equal schooling.

Ultimately, Dr. Byas faced a dilemma over whether or not to confront Gov. George Wallaces political machine and its discriminatory policies governing the licensure of the Alabama Educational Television network. Only time would tell whether his testimony would have dire results for him and the school system, or whether it could successfully overcome the racist programming endemic in the South.

In Making a Way, Dr. Robinson considers the impact of Dr. Byass decision as she examines the inspiring story of a courageous and creative leader.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Inspiring Voices
• Release date: Dec 24, 2013
• ISBN: 9781462407903

Marilyn Robinson

Dr. Marilyn P. Robinson earned a master’s degree in history from Washington University in St. Louis and a doctorate in social studies education from Georgia State University. She has lived and worked in the southern United States since 1966. She currently lives in suburban Atlanta with her husband, Paul Robinson Jr.

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Copyright © 2013 Marilyn Robinson.

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ISBN: 978-1-4624-0791-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4624-0790-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013920840

Inspiring Voices rev. date: 12/16/2013

Contents

List of Illustrations

Preface

Acknowledgments

INTRODUCTION: Tuskegee before 1970

CHAPTER 1: Early Life

CHAPTER 2: First Things First

CHAPTER 3: Buildings for Students

CHAPTER 4: Student Achievement and Curriculum Changes

CHAPTER 5: I Riled Wallace

CHAPTER 6: Off to New York

CHAPTER 7: Colleagues

EPILOGUE: Byas and Macon County Schools after 1976

Notes

Bibliography

Appendix

List of Illustrations

Map of Macon County, Alabama

Macon County Board of Education

Addition to D. C. Wolfe High School

Alabama Educational Television Pamphlet

Marilyn Pajot Presenting Scrapbook to Dr. Byas

Byas Family

JoAnn Wright

Ulysses Byas Elementary School (New York)

To my husband, Paul Robinson Jr.

And to Ulysses Byas’s wife, Annamozel Byas.

Preface

Dr. Byas has been my mentor and friend since 1968. Our paths first crossed when I took a job with the Georgia Teachers and Education Association (GTEA). At that time, two teachers associations still existed in Georgia: the Georgia Education Association and the GTEA, which was started by black educators at a time when they were excluded from the Georgia Education Association (GEA). I was a white teacher looking for work in Atlanta after two years of classroom teaching, when I met Dr. Horace Tate, the executive director of the GTEA. After conversing awhile, he offered me the position of director of research and publications at GTEA. I was young, white, naïve, and idealistic. Green as grass. Ulysses Byas was also a new employee at GTEA, and he was a black, middle-aged, experienced school administrator who was seasoned in the ways of segregation politics. He became my colleague, mentor, and friend.

Over the next two years, we worked together on various projects, including the coauthoring of magazine articles about educational issues facing black teachers and the association. In 1970, the GTEA and GEA merged, becoming the Georgia Association of Educators. Mr. Byas left shortly after the merger to accept the position of superintendent of schools in Macon County, Alabama—Tuskegee is the county seat—and I left to work with the nascent Atlanta Street Academy as a teacher and college prep advisor. Three years later, with the status of the Street Academy in jeopardy, I went to Macon County, Alabama, and applied for work with my former mentor. There I worked with three federal projects, assisted with Mr. Byas’s research for his doctoral dissertation, and resumed our friendship. In 1977, we again went in different directions, with him moving to a superintendency in Long Island, New York, and me getting married and becoming a teacher in Columbus, Georgia.

Years later, when Dr. Byas retired, he and his wife moved back to his first hometown, Macon, Georgia, and we embarked on this project soon after. Beginning in 2002, Dr. Byas and I recorded several interviews in which he reviewed his years in Tuskegee, how he arrived there, what he found, what happened, and why he ultimately left. Having been there for the last three years of his tenure, I was aware of some of this story but had never known all of the details. In fact, the real reasons behind his decision to leave Tuskegee were not known to anyone until many years later. The story is rather dramatic and is detailed in chapter 5.

Dr. Byas’s tenure at Macon County Schools, 1970–1976, was critical to the health of that school system. The issues he tackled were manifold and tricky. Some he attacked directly, but many required other tactics. The white students had exited the system to attend the new segregation academy supported and encouraged by the George C. Wallace government. Many of these students had family members still working with the public schools. Supplies and materials purchased with public funds were disappearing, and it was strongly suspected that they were being siphoned to the private school. Rather than attack this problem head on, Byas started instituting badly needed systems of accountability: systems that were fiscally wise as well as politically wise. By this flanking tactic, the problem of disappearing supplies was drastically curtailed. In the light of current practice, Byas’s policies and innovations may seem obvious, but at that time and in that place, these policies instituted large and small changes, which many people supported and applauded. No doubt, others felt the sting of losing their hold on practices and powers that they had enjoyed for years.

Another tactic that Byas used to the advantage of the school system was his penchant for networking. Byas gained many admirers inside and outside the educational establishment. Some of these people were vital links to the US Department of Education and assisted in getting grants for Macon County. As he describes it, the first few years in Tuskegee were also years of strong support from the Alabama Department of Education. Nevertheless, the Macon County School System was under scrutiny. Even the superintendent’s salary was limited by state restrictions. When the issue of the Alabama Educational Television Network came up, things took a decided turn. This story is still only dimly understood, but the shadowy influence of opposition and oppression became more visible. With auditors in perpetual attendance and with women picketing the administration offices day after day, the employees were aware that something strange was happening. However, we did not know why this was so. Not until Dr. Byas told his story to a group of supporters in the 1990s did anyone know the context of this opposition and his decision to leave Macon County without a fight.

Dr. Byas brought all the necessary skills and attitudes to his role as superintendent. How many others would have known how to examine a school as a carpenter would? How many would have crawled under the building as he did at the Prairie Farms School to observe the termite damage? How many people had the ability to also create accountability systems and to work with his opponents without either bullying or caving in? How many could come up with a strategy to test the honesty and loyalty of employees without confrontation? How many would have had the spiritual guidance and strength to speak out in spite of knowing his job could be jeopardized? How many could hold their own counsel for more than twenty years? Who would be so concerned about the welfare of a couple who had deceived him thirty years ago that he would withhold their names to this day? How many black people could accept and work with white people, knowing that many white people were racists and unwilling to change?

Dr. Byas possessed all these abilities and more. That is why I admire him as one of the greatest mentors in my life.

NOTE: Dr. Byas died in 2012.

Acknowledgments

There comes a point at which you look around and realize that a long project is about to come to fruition. This point in the process of writing this book has finally dawned for me. Wow! This book is actually going to be completed! So now it is time to look backward to all the people who have made it possible to achieve this goal. How can I remember everyone? How can I put into words the meaning of their support? Each author works diligently to thank his or her helpers. So I too have come to this point. I confess to being somewhat overwhelmed at the enormity of the task.

First and foremost, this book was the conception of Dr. Byas, and it represents a large piece of his life. I have tried to faithfully record his words and ideas as expressed in numerous interviews as well as our years of friendship. It is my hope that those who know him will recognize his spirit here. Thank you for entrusting your story to me.

Secondly, my husband, Paul, and Dr. Byas’s wife, Annamozel, have been loyal supporters and made our lengthy interviews possible with their quiet presence. In addition to several trips to Macon, Paul accompanied me to Tuskegee and Montgomery, where I interviewed three former school board members.

Thanks, of course, to those board members—Dr. Ellis Hall, Dr. J. H. M. Henderson, and Mrs. Consuello Harper—for their willingness to share their time and their memories with me.

My sister, Jean Pajot Forrester, designed the cover for this book and gave many words of encouragement along the way.

Dr. Richard Davies not only shared many hints about publishing this book, he generously took on the task of formatting it when I was simply overwhelmed by the computer skills I needed but did not possess. I am not overstating it when I say that this book might not have been completed without his support.

Over the years of development, several friends have read all or parts of the manuscript, and many have listened patiently as I fumed about my seeming inability to move beyond the point of research to getting a readable story on paper. Although they will remain nameless, lest I omit someone who deserves my thanks, I appreciate each one for the invaluable but intangible support they gave me.

Despite this support over the years, I alone am responsible for any errors that may have crept into this manuscript. I hope that very few escaped our scrutiny, but as it is a human enterprise, I imagine there will be some. For these, I ask the readers’ forgiveness.

INTRODUCTION

Tuskegee before 1970

Tuskegee, Alabama, the county seat of Macon County, holds a special place in the culture and history of black people and in the civil rights movement in Alabama and throughout the United States. It was not surprising that it hired the first black superintendent of a county school system in the United States.

Tuskegee is the county seat of Macon County, which is essentially a rural area. In the 1970s, its population was about 25,000 people. It is situated in the east-central section of Alabama, approximately forty miles east of Montgomery, Alabama, and forty miles west of Columbus, Georgia. It is large in area: 616 square miles. It has several small communities located around the central city of Tuskegee: Shorter to the west, Notasulga to the north, and smaller areas served by their own schools to the east (Nichols) and south (South Macon).¹

Shortly after the end of the Civil War, white Macon Countians began to reassert their power over the county, despite the activities of the Radical Republicans in Washington and the local black leadership. For example, the home of a black Republican leader, James Alston, was attacked with gunfire in 1870, injuring both Alston and his wife. The incident led to armed conflict between the black and white communities.² A constant tension ensued here and all across the South as blacks sought to migrate away from the area while white property owners sought to