Reverend Rose Johnson is a Gainesville native – born and raised. She serves the community as the Executive Director of the Newtown Florist Club and advocates for equality and justice in the city of Gainesville and beyond.
Stories of trauma and pride: Alumni discuss desegregation and closure of E.E. Butler Instructors at E.E. Butler High School are seen in this photo provided by Newtown Florist Club.
Built as a brand-new high school for Gainesville s Black students in the 1960s, E.E. Butler High School was only around for seven years. But the excellence that was fostered and flourished in its hallways, athletic fields and classrooms still permeate 52 years after its closure.
The segregated American public school system was dismantled by the landmark Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954.
However, the unintended consequences of school desegregation not only led to E.E. Butler’s closure in 1969 but a generation of Black students who experienced a traumatic loss of identity in their new schools, according to alumni from Butler, who shared their stories in a virtual forum hosted by the Newtown Florist Club on Monday, Feb. 22, as a