Habersham County, Georgia
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School district history
Habersham Central opened August 31, 1970[1], bringing together high schools at North Habersham (Clarkesville) and South Habersham (Cornelia).
High schools in Habersham had already gone through one round of consolidation before the current high school was formed. South Habersham was the first to open, doing so in an emergency situation. Attendance increased so much at the start of the 1950-51 school term that Cornelia High ran out of classrooms. Students were instead sent to Baldwin[2]. Cornelia already had an active football program at the time of consolidation and so the program was moved to the high school at Baldwin, which took on the name of South Habersham[3]. As Baldwin did not have a football team previously, games were still played at Cornelia. By the 1952-53 year, South Habersham High was moved to Cornelia[4].
North Habersham opened in 1951, combining Demorest and Clarkesville[5][6]. Plans were in place to consolidate North and South Habersham by mid-1965, when the board of education agreed to purchase land for the new school[7] Plans were put on display for the new high school in 1969 as building began[8]
Cornelia Regional, the county's segregated high school, was never big enough for football, but it was a godsend for neighboring counties. Black populations in Georgia's mountainous region were never big. Several had one-room schools that served the whole school district, such as Rabun County's Ivy Hill. Cornelia became the regional high school for many of these counties.
Banks County switched its agreement with Commerce city in 1954 to Cornelia as the Commerce school (Johntown) could not accommodate them[9]. Cornelia Regional opened a new building as part of the Minimum Foundation Program on Sept. 5, 1955, which saw it take in even more high school children[10]. Besides Banks, White and Rabun counties were sending their black high school students to Cornelia.
Desegregation began in Habersham County for the 1965-66 school year[11]. Eleven students integrated that term at Cornelia Elementary, South Habersham High and North Habersham High[12]. Rabun County also pulled its students from Cornelia Regional that year after its board of education decided not to risk losing federal funds[13]. Of 11 black students in Rabun, three were to be in high school. Habersham County closed Cornelia Regional in 1966 [14], completing integration.
Georgia Industrial Institute, located in Alto, became the final landing place for incarcerated juveniles in 1953, after previous schools were located in Rome (Battey State)[15], Augusta[16] and in Stephens County at Camp Toccoa[17]. Alto had previously been the site of a tuberculosis hospital, which converted to a prison school. Black youths were initially the only students[18]. State representative Sidney Blackburn protested the use of Alto to house juvenile prisoners[19], calling it, "a social problem that we can't accurately predict at this time." Blackburn's protests went nowhere and the school moved in.
At some point after white juvenile prisoners moved to Alto, the black portion of the facility was referred to as Jack Forrester. Forrester was involved with the Georgia Department of Corrections. It is unknown if the name was ever official, or solely used to avoid confusion with the white prison school at Georgia Industrial Institute.
High school football history
Programs
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Notable coaches
Notable teams
Notable players
References
- ↑ Tri-County Advertiser, Aug. 20, 1970
- ↑ Tri-County Advertiser, Sept. 7, 1950
- ↑ Tri-County Advertiser, Sept. 7, 1950
- ↑ Georgia Educational Directory, 1952-53
- ↑ Georgia Educational Directory, 1950-51
- ↑ Georgia Educational Directory, 1951-52
- ↑ Northeast Georgian, June 3, 1965
- ↑ Tri-County Advertiser, June 12, 1969
- ↑ Northeast Georgian, Sept. 2, 1954
- ↑ Northeast Georgian, Sept. 15, 1955
- ↑ Northeast Georgian, June 3, 1965
- ↑ Northeast Georgian, Sept. 2, 1965
- ↑ The Clayton Tribune, May 6, 1965
- ↑ Northeast Georgian, Sept. 1, 1966
- ↑ Rome News-Tribune, Oct. 9, 1951
- ↑ Northeast Georgian, March 26, 1953
- ↑ The Toccoa Record, Oct. 11, 1951
- ↑ Northeast Georgian, March 26, 1953
- ↑ Northeast Georgian, April 2, 1953