Valdosta, Ga. is a small city just north of the Florida border on I-75. It is the home of Valdosta State University, Moody Air Force Base and two large high schools. Lowndes County High School is one of them. Lowndes County’s football program has won several state titles, but they are always overlooked in favor of their cross-town rival, Valdosta High, who has won even more state and national titles.
Lowndes County also has an outstanding wrestling program that is the envy of other schools. Their baseball program is also top-notch. St. Louis Cardinals outfielder J.D. Drew is a graduate of Lowndes County High School.
With all this notoriety, an incident has happened that was terribly embarrassing to this proud school and community.
Three white students, a junior and two repeating freshmen, painted some Barbie dolls black, tied nooses around their necks and hung the dolls from a tree outside of Lowndes County High School. The letters “KKK” were also found scrawled on several walls.
In compliance with rule 155 of the code which deals with school disturbances, the three juveniles have been suspended for five days and will spend at least the rest of the semester at the county’s alternative school.
At the alternative school, the three will probably be saying, “No, man, it wasn’t me, you got me confused with somebody else, please don’t beat the crap out of me,” on more than a few occasions.
When and if they return to Lowndes High, a few of Lowndes High’s football and wrestling athletes will probably want to have a little chat with them as well.
All fun aside, two facts did not emerge from media reports but should have. First of all, had this happened 30 or 40 years ago, hardly an eyebrow would have been raised. People fail to realize that it was a completely different world less than a lifetime ago. Immature stunts like this were the least of people’s worries.
Since this incident occurred, the county school superintendent, Lowndes High’s principal and several citizens of the Valdosta community, both white and black, publicly denounced the acts. Students at Lowndes High seem to be handling it with the same dignity and class they show all the time and have shown since I was a Valdosta resident six years ago.
Second, this thing could have happened anywhere in the country. It could have happened in Montana, California, New York, Kentucky-even right here in Oktibbeha County. It is not the place of anybody anywhere to look down their noses at this town. Sure, they have their problems, but so does everyone else.
The city of Valdosta is not a hotbed of racist activity. Heck, Valdosta isn’t a hotbed of anything except frenzied football fanaticism.
It is unfortunate that this had to happen to the people of Valdosta. It has given a fine community a hideous stain that will be hard to remove, but as my grandmother used to say, “They are a tough breed down yonder way.”
The citizens of Valdosta will get through this. They’ve gotten through worse. No reason to believe that this fine community will fall out of character now.
Editor’s note: Tony Odom is a 1996 graduate of Valdosta State University.
Tony Odom is a graduate student in the history department.