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Hoxie 21 Celebration

Tomorrow will mark the 60th anniversary of the integration of African American students into the Hoxie Schools.  This occurred on July 11th, 1955, two years before the Little Rock Nine attended schools at Little Rock Central High School. Hoxie closed its black school and moved those students to the main campus in 1955, making it one of the first schools in Arkansas to desegregate.  The African-American students who integrated the school came to be known as the Hoxie 21.  Despite opposition, particularly from outside groups, the Hoxie superintendent and school board remained unanimous in their support of integration, and the school district was never segregated again.   Those students will be honored and remembered tomorrow during a day-long celebration at the Hoxie High School.  A drop in event takes place from ten to three.  At noon tomorrow, there will be a formal ceremony that will include video comments from Governor Asa Hutchinson, and a special proclamation will be presented by the Hoxie School Board.  Photos and memorabilia will be on display throughout the day, and the documentary “Hoxie: The First Stand” will be shown.  Future plans include plans for a museum and education center commemorating the integration, possibly including a reconstruction of the Hoxie Colored School, as the facility was known.  The public is invited to attend.   More information can be found here

Johnathan Reaves is the News Director for KASU Public Radio. As part of an Air Force Family, he moved to Arkansas from Minot, North Dakota in 1986. He was first bitten by the radio bug after he graduated from Gosnell High School in 1992. While working on his undergraduate degree, he worked at KOSE, a small 1,000 watt AM commercial station in Osceola, Arkansas. Upon graduation from Arkansas State University in 1996 with a degree in Radio-Television Broadcast News, he decided that he wanted to stay in radio news. He moved to Stuttgart, Arkansas and worked for East Arkansas Broadcasters as news director and was there for 16 years.