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issued an order that the two schools be merged in order to end segregation.
There was grumbling from both blacks and whites. Neither group wanted to give up “their” school. Blacks didn’t think whites would accept their children, and whites feared for their children’s safety in an all-black neighborhood. (At most,
Police chief’s daughter, Mrs. Rosin e Jushaway, is coordinator of town’s senior citizens program,
four city blocks separated the two schools!)
Such fears proved imaginary.
Sister Mary Celeste, of the St. Rose faculty, was named principal of the combined schools, designated Bay St. Louis Catholic Elementary. She thinks she was chosen because she was acceptable to both blacks and whites — to the former because she had already taught at their school, to the latter because she is white.
A joint school board was formed, with three members being elected from each parish and the two pastors serving as ex officio members. Sister Celeste says there has been no friction at all — “They are all working with only the good of the children in mind. It must be the hand of God.” Both school plants are being utilized on a grade-grouping basis.
OF course, Bay St. Louis isn’t paradise, and there have been minor difficulties — public accommodations and housing being two areas in which have occasioned isolated examples of resentment.
But in the fields of law enforcement and education — two areas often cited as key indications in a community’s race-relations success or failure — Bay St. Louis thus far has proved a shining example of a Mississippi town that is willing to change if the change can be shown to work for the benefit of all.
Father Aubespin, pastor of St. Rose de Lima, summed up the situation this way: “I wouldn’t say that we are where we should be in terms of race relations, but we are a lot better off than many other places. We are working things out. Together.”