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Te Quest or

EducationTe state classied them as colored; the blacks considered them to be white, and the Chinese saw

themselves as neither. Barred rom the white schools and reusing the black schools, the Chinese had tond their own means o acquiring an education.

BY NAALIE DICKSON

All the Chinese children who attended the Cleveland Chinese School in its inaugural year o 1938.Courtesy o Paul Wong.

Nickie Wus schooling has beentypical.

She attended the Clarksdalepublic school through the 6th grade, andthen went to Lee Academy until the 10th.

For her last two years o high school, shewas at the Mississippi School or Mathand Science. Now she is a student at OleMiss.

wo generations ago, though,her education would have been atypical.

Wus only challenge in going toschool was bringing home good grades.Even Bs were something dicult to bring

home to parents.My parents would get mad at

me i I didnt do well, Wu said.But unlike many Mississippi

Chinese beore her, no legal system has

hindered Wus quest or education. Teprevious generations had to work aroundthe system, nding private tutors, settingup their own schools and even separatingamilies to acquire an education.

Te Chinese were not legallyallowed to enter the white schools on astate level until the Brown v. Board oEducation o opeka case ocially ruled

in 1954 that separate schools were inher-ently unequal. Until then, the Chinesewere legally classied as colored in thestate o Mississippi.

In response to the lack o

schools, Chinese across the Delta cametogether with the help o the ClevelandFirst Baptist Church to build a school orthe Chinese.

It turned out to be the larg-est community project ever undertakenby the Mississippi Chinese, wrote PaulWong, a Delta Chinese who recentlycompiled a book o memoirs on the

Te Cleveland Chinese school on Highway8, just aer completion in 1937. Courtesyo Paul Wong.

Te school building soon beore its demoli-tion in 2003. Courtesy o Paul Wong.

Our inability to solve the problem o providing theducation caused us great pain and anguish. Living i

unjust society to what avail is it to complain or worDancie Ng Wong,a supporter o the building o the Chinese school

project.In 1934, Ira Eavenson, a minister

at First Baptist in Cleveland who hadbegun English classes or local Chinese aew years earlier, led eorts to raise undsor a separate Chinese school, accordingto John Jungs book Chopsticks in theLand o Cotton.

Chinese across the Delta raised$30,000 rom both Chinese and whitesources. Te building was two storiesand concrete, on the outskirts o townon Highway 8, according to Wong. It had

the care o an uncle so they could at-tend school there. Te children stayedin China or our years, away rom theirparents.

Tey came back to Mississippiin 1938 because the Japanese had be-gun bombing southern China. All threechildren directly entered the ClevelandSchool.

However, the school ailed tomeet the expectations o the Chinesecommunity. Many parents planned or

their eldest children to take over theamily grocery business, so they did notneed much education and the Clevelandschool was e nough, wrote Wong. Parentshad other plans or the younger children,though, that went beyond the grocerystore and beyond the scope o the tinyCleveland Chinese school.

It did not take long or the

parents to come to the realithe school was incapable otheir children or college, w

One by one, the Deamilies attending the scho

In 1941, the rst yecame to the school, there wabout 30 students at the schthe Mrs. Wong, who had beor the start o the school, dsend her children to a schowhere they joined the childDelta Chinese amily who h

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dormitories or boarding students. woAmerican teachers taught all 12 grades,and one Chinese teacher instructed thestudents in Chinese studies.

In its rst year o operation in1938, the school had about 60 students.Te start o the school had been longanticipated by some Chinese.

In letters o correspondencein 1938 between Dancie Ng Wong, awoman who had been very involved inthe ounding o the school, and a inKong Ng, Wong wrote about the arrivalo a school or the Chinese.

Tat there will now be a placewhere our children can receive an educa-tion, is not only a happy event or theparents, but also a glorious event or ourcountry, Wong wrote.

In order to educate her childrenbeore the school came, she had had tond another source or schooling.

our inability to solve theproblem o providing them an education

caused us great pain and anguish. Livingin this unjust society to what avail is itto complain or worry. Our solution wasto send our children back to our homecountry to be educated, she wrote in aletter to in Kong Ng.

When her youngest was just3 years she took her two sons and onedaughter back to China and le them in

earlier or the same reason.Wong, himsel, le

in 1943 and moved to Portlnish high school, he wrotecontinued to shrink until itthe lower grades and only Eclosed regular classes in 194land public schools allowed

attend soon aer.Other cities like Ru

dale and Greenville oeredradically or Chinese childrto James Loewens book, MChinese.

Greenville even proroom schoolhouse and a whor grades 1 through 12 or years in the late 1930s. Evenearly 1940s, ve Chinese stuallowed into the white schobasis, according to Robert Sbook, Lotus Among the MTeir racial purity was testiChinese men, and aer a su

the school system decided tChinese to attend.

In 1924, a Chinese in Rosedale named Gong Ldaughter, Martha, to the locschool. At recess, she was incould not return.

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school. At recess, she was inormed shecould not return.

Her ather sued and the casetraveled all the way to the U.S. SupremeCourt where it was decided in 1927that because she was not white, shewas colored. Tus, the state o Missis-sippi did not have to allow her into thewhite schools, nor did it have to provideseparate schooling or the Chinese race,according to case documents.

Te Lums moved to Arkansasaer the case w here Martha could attend

public school.But although the Chinese were

not legally allowed to attend the whiteschools because o the Gong Lum v. Ricecase, various towns had no problem withChinese coming to school.

In Louise, Hoover Lee enteredthe 1st grade without a problem andwent straight through until graduation.However, he knew o amilies who had toswitch towns so their children could goto school, he said.

His rst cousin in Inverness wentto the white school until a large numbero Mexican laborers came to town orcotton picking. Te sudden infux o im-migrants brought more non-whites intothe school system and Inverness reversedits policy o letting the C hinese attend,Lee said. His c ousin had to transer toShaw where he was still allowed to go toschool, he said.

Another amily he knew livedin Ruleville. Te schools there barredChinese students, so the mother movedwith the children to Sumner while theather stayed behind to watch the store,Lee said.

For the Chinese, this was justsomething they had to accept.

We didnt do any complain-ing, Lee said. We just took the next bestthing.

Sometimes, however, the Chi-nese could work with the school boardsto let amily members attend.

In Boyle, Peter Joes brother hadjust returned rom three years o servicein the military during World War II.Aer letting Peters older brothers attendthe white school, the board changed its

policies in 1937 and barred the Chineserom entering, Joe wrote in one o thememoirs collected by Paul Wong. But in1945, the brother used his service or thecountry as leverage to open the schoolback up or the Chinese, Joe wrote.

Te war proved to be a positiveinfuence or the Chinese in gaining ac-cess to the white schools, Wong wrote. Inthe war against Japan, China was a U.S.ally. Furthermore, several Delta Chinesemen served in the war.

Te Greenville schools opened

up in 1944, according to Wong. Someopened earlier, such as Clarksdale in1941 or Greenwood in the late 1930s.However, some small towns like Lelanddidnt open their doors until 1952, orMerigold in 1953.

Despite the challenges the Chi-nese aced in se eking education, manybecame successul.

(Te Chinese school) genera-tion turned out storekeepers, accoun-tants, engineers and architects. Tesucceeding generation ollowed withdoctors, lawyers, pharmacists and busi-ness executives, Wong wrote.

One example o how the Chinesehave drastically improved their stationsin lie in the Mississippi Delta is AudreySidney. Sidney grew up on the Arkansasside o the Delta and dealt with very littlediscrimination, she said. She eventuallyattended Mississippi State College orWomen, now called the Mississippi Uni-versity or Women, and earned a degreein education in 1956.

When she and her husbandmoved to Greenville, she applied at theGreenville Public School to be a teacher.Although the schools allowed Chinese inat the time, they did not al low Chinese toteach.

(Te superintendent) told methat only Caucasians could teach in the

white public schools in Greenville, shesaid in an interview or the Delta StateOral History Project in 2000.

She settled or a job at theGreenville Air Force Base until yearslater in 1965 a riend at church told hershe should apply again at the publicelementary school. Tis time she was

accepted. Sidney later switched to the

newly opened private Washington Schoolin 1970 and became the elementaryschools principal. Ten in 1989, shebecame headmaster o the entire schooland served until 1999.

Both o her two daughters at-tended the public elementary school, theprivate school and eventually MississippiState University. One graduated as an

Chinese at a dance held in the GreenvilleVeterans o Foreign War building. Cour-tesy o John Jung.

accountant and later earned an MBA,while Sidneys other daughter graduatedin the rst computer science class andlater served on an international cybersoware board, Sidney said.

Many o the Delta Chinese, likeSidney, attended the universities in Mis-sissippi without a problem. However,there were still orms o prejudice at col-lege.

Gay Chow wrote an article onthe Chinese at Mississippi State Uni-versity, called Te Way We Were. Chowocused a lot on a club the Delta Chineseat MSU started in 1952, called Te LuckyEleven.

It unctioned a lot like a rater-nity. o be a member, students had to payees and attend meetings. Te studentselected Lucky Eleven sweethearts andavorites rom among the Chinese girls

each year, too.Te club lled a void or the

Chinese at MSU and around the state.Although allowed to attend some othe schools and the universities, beingaccepted into the social events and orga-nizations was another matter.

We might have been riendswith them at school, or we might have sat

by them at the school c aeteria, but otherthan that, we might as well have beensegregated, Chow wrote.

Te idea to orm the LuckyEleven club actually came when a group

o Delta Chinese boys at MSU were talk-ing about how they couldnt join any othe raternities. So, they decided to maketheir own, Chow wrote.

Te main event the club hostedwas the annual ormal dance, usuallyhosted over the Christmas holidays. On

Chinese boys rom the Cleveland school

collected scrapmetal or the war efort. TeChineses contributions to the war is saidto have helped open schools up to them.Courtesy o Paul Wong.

Elizabeth McCain (l) and Martha Miller(r) taught the upper and lower grades,respectively, at the Chinese School. Millerremembers being shunned in the whitecommunity to a degree or teaching at theschool. Courtesy o Paul Wong

Fun Pang (#15) attended the Chinese school in Cleveland rom 1937 to 1942 until hebecame the only student to be expelled. He then went to Webb high school where hebecame a successul ootball player. Courtesy o Paul Wong.

one Sunday during the holiCleveland American Legionrented out, decorated and women in ormal gowns ansmart suits.

From the 1950s tothe dance was the s ocial evewrote. Chinese drove rom Greenwood, Memphis ando Arkansas and Louisiana Christmas dances put on ea

Te University o MChinese club would also ho

dances that would sometimwith the Lucky Elevens, Ch

But as the Chinese accepted into the social netuniversities, the clubs adedlast Lucky Eleven dance wa1977

Te older generatiolook back ondly on the Ludays, but there is not muchclubs to exist today as the Cbecome accepted into the stheir societies.

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