I had been told that Wynne, Arkansas once had a number of juke joints in its northwestern section, which was the town’s Black community. But over the years, the town has suffered both fires and tornadoes, and almost nothing is left in the Black community except residences, churches and vacant lots. An exception, however, is the abandoned Childress High School, which was Wynne’s Black school before integration. As I visit Southern towns, I often notice what the Black community was forced to give up in the process of so-called desegregation. Years of history and community pride were done away with; favorite teachers and principals were demoted, fired, or forced into early retirement. In some communities, at least the community continued to support public schools, but in many others, the white community moved to private academies, leaving the public schools segregated, but without the legacy or history of the Black community’s traditional school, and with a drastic funding crisis as well.
Childress is in relatively good shape, despite its abandonment. It looks as if it perhaps served as a church in the community for a period of time before being abandoned again. There is a memorial to several members of the McNutt family, but who they were or what their connection to the school was is not clear at all.
The McNutt family’s father, Henry, Sr.., went to Palestine School near Forrest City. His children attended the Wynne schools after he came to Wynne to work in the Halstead Copper factory. The family lost all four of their boys to a rare blood disorder, leaving the daughter as their surviving child. The mother wrote a book about their terrible loss. The family still lives in Wynne.
Bridget Hart
870 238 8631
Did they have a connection to the school? Is that why the marker was placed there?
My dad, David W. Porter, was principal of Childress High school from 1946 to 1953. In September 1954 our family moved from Wynne, Arkansas to Abilene, texas where my dad became principal of woodson High school.
My given name at birth was Mauris L. Porter. In 1968 I officially added the name ‘Emeka’ as my last name, because I wanted an African last name to refect my African decent.