The Decatur School District was created in 1865, and by 1870, a dozen Black students were attending both of the town’s two schools. Up until 1969, the number of white or Black students in each school was based on who lived near the neighborhood schools. The Decatur Public Schools were always integrated.  Cross-town busing to achieve a better racial balance in each school started in 1969. 

On June 2, 1882, Robert R. Rogan was the first Black student to graduate from Decatur High School.  He went on to become a machinist at Union Iron Works and Mueller’s before becoming Decatur’s first Black plumber and pipe fitter.  Until the 1930s, the majority of Black teenagers did not finish high school because most of the jobs they were allowed to have did not require that level of education.

Fred T. “Pop” Long (1896-1966), a 1913 graduate of Decatur High School, was the first Black person to graduate from Millikin University on May 31, 1918.  His thesis was “Negroes in Decatur.”  On June 5, 1934, the first Black female graduate of Millikin University was English major Marian Vanderburg.  Today Millikin offers the Long-Vanderburg academic scholarship.  Millikin hired its first full-time Black faculty member in August 1969, Assistant Professor of English, Michael Onwuemene. 

The first Black teacher in the Decatur Public Schools was Mrs. Lizzie D. Johnson who taught third grade at French School starting in September 1953 at a salary of $4,000.  She became the first Black school principal in Decatur in June 1967, also at French School.  She retired in 1972.

In January 1956 the District #61 school board size was changed from three to seven representatives.  In April of that year 18 candidates ran for the new board, and after ninety-one years, The Rev. David E. Readye, minister of St. Peter’s A.M.E. Church, became the first Black elected to the Decatur Board of Education. The first Black woman on the School Board may have been Richland English Professor Dr. Jeanelle Norman who served from November 1981 to November 1993, much of that time as board president.

1951 Decatur High School graduate Laura Bell Smith (Hawkins) became the first Black Decatur school student to become a Decatur School teacher in 1957 at Johns Hill.  1957 SDHS graduate Charlotte Darlene Echols (Harris) started teaching at Eisenhower in 1964. 1962 SDHS graduate Lee L. Willet became an elementary school teacher at Riverside School in 1967.

In 1957, Joe D. Russell became the first Black high school teacher and first Black head varsity team coach at Eisenhower High School.  In 1958, math teacher Jackson Owens became the first Black teacher at Stephen Decatur High School, and in 1962, Mr. Parris Campbell was hired as an English teacher and first Black teacher at MacArthur High School.  Frankye Morgan was the first Black teacher at Centennial Jr. High in 1959. 

Elmer McPherson became the first Black Decatur school superintendent in 2001 and served until 2006.  He was followed by the first Black woman superintendent, Gloria Davis from 2006 until 2014.  Dr. Rochell Clark served from February 2022 until June 2026. 

In 1960 there were about five Black teachers in DPS; in 1967, about seventeen Black staff members; in 1968-69, DPS had thirty Black teachers or 3% of the teachers in a district that had 15% Black students. After a major recruiting effort in the spring of 1969, the 1969-70 school year had thirty-eight Black teachers and one Black principal. 

In 2025 the racial make-up of the Decatur Public School student population was - Black: 50.8%; White: 29.4%; Two or More Races: 13.6%; Hispanic/Latino: 5.3%; Asian or Asian/Pacific Islander: 0.7%; American Indian or Alaska Native: 0.2%.  The city’s overall racial makeup is 77% white, 22% Black and mixed race, and 3% Hispanic. 

Compiled by Mark W. Sorensen

September 7, 2025