COBB SCHOOL OFFERED QUALITY EDUCATION IN ERA OF SEGREGATION

In an era of segregated schools for black and white students, the John S. Cobb School in Cape Girardeau did its job well with limited resources.

The school for black students, originally called Lincoln School, was built in 1890 and operated for years under the watchful eye of John S. Cobb one of the city's most prominent and respected early educators.

After Cobb died in 1919, the school in 1925 was renamed in his honor. In 1953, as the U.S. Supreme Court was considering its landmark desegregation case, Cobb school burned to the ground and was never rebuilt.

Louise Duncan, who's lived in Cape Girardeau County her entire life, remembers attending the school from 1937-1949.

Duncan said that although the school was small, with a total of fewer than 200 students in grades 1-12, it was run by dedicated teachers. "We had good teachers," she said. "They saw to it that you learned because back then they'd make you stay after school and you might even get a spanking.

"You had to get your lessons done or you lost privileges. They were really strict, but you learned."

Duncan said that although the school offered a limited curriculum, students had "the basics" drilled into their heads with a doggedness that stuck with them. Many Cobb students went on to college and success later in life.

She said one of the school's alumni was the late Ed Spicer, who went on to become an administrator at Southeast Missouri State University.

"I think with basics we could have competed with anybody," she said. "A lot of our students went on to college. Dr. Spicer was the local boy that made good and came back home."

Indeed, John Cobb probably dreamed of the kind of success among students at the school that people like Spicer achieved.

Born in 1849 a Tennessee slave, Cobb first was taught by the son of his owner. He later became a servant of a college professor, which led to his attendance at a Presbyterian college for black students in Maryville, Tenn.

He taught for three years in a school for blacks in Jackson before moving to Cape Girardeau in the early 1880s.

Cobb helped build the school that later was named for him. The John S. Cobb School housed both elementary and high schools and was at the corner of Merriwether and Ellis.

Duncan said the school was similar to one-room country schools popular at the time. Some of the grades were combined, and while one grade was "in class" another would be in the same room having "study time" simultaneously.

Despite the existence of segregation that required the school, Duncan said hostilities lodged by public school students against those at Cobb School were rare.

"We always got along together. It wasn't that bad," she said. "We didn't have the same opportunities, but as far as getting along, we always did.

"There are some that could tell a different story, but we never ran into a whole lot of meanness from whites."

The school had only one sports team: a boy's high school basketball team that enjoyed much success competing against other Bootheel and Southern Illinois black schools.

The team had proudly brought home the Class B Negro High School Championship Trophy in March 1953, only three days before the school was destroyed by fire.

The next year the entire school system was integrated and the school was not rebuilt.

Duncan said the black community was saddened to see the end of the piece of Cape Girardeau's history.

"We were glad for the opportunity to be able to go to schools with a wider education," she said. "There were a lot more classes open to us after kids started to go to public schools.

"But it still was sad to have our school go like that too."

She said the transition to integrated schools went well. "I think it went over a little smoother by the school being destroyed by fire.

"If the school would have just closed, and they would have said, `You can't go here anymore,' and forced us into the other schools, there might have been some resistance. But it opened up more opportunities for our black students here."

Although the school and the building where it was housed no longer exist, Duncan said for its alumni the school lives on in memory.

"It was a good school. We had excellent teachers who really saw to it that you got the education you needed when you were going to school," she said. "They were dedicated to teaching."