10th Street Baptist

Chapter 1 Thursday Night Football

Wichita Falls, Texas in 1957 is at the heart of the Bible Belt-- big on Baptists and big on high school football. Two high schools, Wichita Falls Senior High and Booker T. Washington High School, provide education and football in separate and segregated parts of town.

The city, like the State of Texas, operates under the 1894 Supreme Court doctrine of separate but equal documented by the United States Supreme Court in Plessy v Ferguson. The separate part was strictly enforced, but the equal part, not so much.

Black students had to attend the segregated black high school. The students, their parents, friends and everyone else with black or colored skin adhered to the Jim Crowe Laws: sit in the back of the bus, use Colored restaurants and bathrooms, drink only out of water fountains marked Colored, live in a separate part of town and don’t even think about looking, with lust in your heart at a white girl or woman.

In 1954, the Supreme Court of the United States upped the ante, making it illegal for States and cities to operate segregated schools. Separate was not equal, the Court said but they failed to put a time limit on the implementation of this new doctrine. As of 1957, not one school in the American south had implemented the new law, Brown v. the Board of Education.

A crisp, clear November night in 1957 in North Texas, Thursday, the night for black football at the 15,000-seat high school stadium down Harrison Street at the bottom of the hill. The black students don’t get high attendance on their Thursday night games but some of the white students from Wichita Falls High School attended the game just for the fun of it. They cheer and jeer the blacks, but little did they know that the black athletes were the best football players in town.

It’s fourth quarter, the final game of the regular season. The Mustangs, Ft. Worth’s Black High School, is in town, fighting to advance to the playoffs. The Mustangs lead 17 to 12 with five minutes to go. The Raiders need a touchdown, but they more urgently need a first down and it’s fourth down with one yard to go.

JD Bartels, black quarterback for the Booker T. Washington Raiders, made Black All-American last year and is on track to be the number one black quarterback in the nation in 1957. Over-the-top-31, on two, he barks in the huddle. JD calls for a clownish play for the fullback to take the ball from the quarterback and do a barrel roll over the line just to show off. The white students whoop it up, FIRST DOWN. Way to go, JD, they yell. Two plays later, JD throws a slant pass into the end zone, TOUCHDOWN. The Raiders lead now 19-17 with two minutes to play.

In the stands, several members of the Wichita Falls High School class cheer the Raiders to victory. Zach Zimmerman is de facto leader of the group, a leader of the class, charismatic and well-liked and leader of the Wichitas, a high school country western band which plays on KFWT every Saturday morning at 6 a.m.—prime time.

The Raiders win the game and the players go to the showers before putting on casual clothes and heading for the school dance. JD meets his steady girlfriend, Tania Wilson, outside the locker room; they hold hands as they stroll to the traditional after-game dance.

You played another great game, Tania flirts with JD. They know each other well, think they are in love, after going steady for over a year.

Thanks, babe, JD replies.

You did a great job too of leading the cheers. I could hear the roar of the crowd all through the game, all 200 of them.

"Ok, so you don’t get the crowds, the Coyotes get, but you did have a pretty good game."

I agree we played well against Ft. Worth, a good team in the state, you will have to admit.

JD and Tania, slow-dance, rubbing their fronts tightly together. They are the leaders of the school, both good looking, smart, and serious about their roles as leaders in the civil rights movements.

When the dance is over at 11 p.m. JD and Tania get in his car, a ‘49 Oldsmobile, and head out for their favorite parking spot. They kiss in the front seat of the car. JD massages Tania’s breasts. They get hot, heavy breathing, sweating, anxious.

When are we going to have sex? JD asks.

You ask me that every time, and my answer is always the same. I want to have sex with you, but we need to wait until we are out of college and we can get married. Brother Johnson preached last week at Church that teen-agers these days are way too aggressive in drinking and having sex. You and I are leaders and we need to set an example.

I know you’re right, but my body is ready to have sex with you. Want me to prove it to you? he asks as he moves her hand over into his crotch where it is obvious that he is ready to have sex with her.

You can hold out, she says. And besides, there is always the chance that I could get pregnant, and we don’t want to do that now.

Of course, you are right, JD responds.

Changing the subject, he says, are you coming to the meeting tomorrow afternoon?

The integration meeting?

"Yes, I am leading the meeting tomorrow. We will discuss the background that I think justifies us standing up to integrate Wichita Falls High School. I am going to go back to the lynching of Emmett Tills, that boy in Mississippi year before last. He was only 14 years old, and the KKK killed him without a second thought just because they heard he whistled at a white woman."

Oh my god, I know about that. We must stand up to that. If we don’t, it will get just worse and worse.

Talk of the integration meeting cooled off their romantic activities and by then it was midnight. JD drove Tania home and walked her to the front door where a porch light was on waiting for her safe return. Thanks, JD said. I had a great time, but one of these days, you are going to lose your cool and we will both lose our virginity at the same time.

I had a good time too but don’t get your hopes up, I have a steel will.

Good night, my love.

Good night.

Chapter 2 Friday Night Football

Wichita Falls, Texas is a medium-sized family town, peaceful and comfortable, but that would only if you were white and preferably a Southern Baptist. In 1957, the city was occupied by about 65,000 people including 8,000 Negroes who lived in a separate, (but equal) part of town. In 1918 oil drillers discovered an abundant patch of oil in a shallow field near Burkburnett, a suburb of Wichita Falls, about 12 miles to the north just a few miles from the Red River, the northern border of Texas and Oklahoma. Wealth came to many citizens of the North Texas community.

High School Football and the Baptist Church are the two favorite activities in Wichita Falls in late 1950’s but if you wanted to get the truth of it, football would undoubtedly win that poll. Wichita Falls Senior High (WFSH) with 1600 students was the main white school in town and Booker T. Washington High School, just south of downtown with about 400 students serviced the black community.

The white boys at WFSH represented North Texas with style; they made State AAAA championship two years in a row and were heading towards the quarter-finals as of November 15, 1957. Jimmy Sides, the WFSH full-back was not All-American, but he was All-State and a great full back on Coach Golding’s single wing formation team.

Joe Golding, the high school football head coach was just about the most famous and richest man in town. Well, not really, a lot of men had made big money in the oil business and they were richer than Joe Golding, but no one was more admired or more famous than Coach Golding, not in Wichita Falls anyway

Since Joe had led the high school team to two State champions in the last two years, he was even better known than before those big wins came along. Joe was a good coach—he made the boys tough and gave them a desire to win, game after game. Joe taught one course of American History because it was required that he teach, but the town wanted him to know they appreciated his contribution to the football team and they rewarded him, legally, with gifts like a new car every year, free rent in a nice house on Tilden Avenue, and lots of other freebies which seemed to show up on an unexpected basis.

When Joe Golding came on-board in 1952, he started a recruiting program much like the colleges did, going out to the rural high schools in the area to scout out the best football players in the region. That program paid high dividends and resulted in the two State AAAA Championships in 1955 and 1956.

Only the best players in the high schools make the varsity team and attaining a starting position on the Wichita Falls Coyotes guaranteed rock-star status at the school and around the town. Local merchants were not above contributing free products to players with especially good performance the week before. A letter jacket at the end of the year presented personally by Coach Golding was nothing short of an Academy Award Oscar.

August in Wichita Falls is hot, but Coach Golding knows that his team will only make that coveted State Championship position if they are well-trained and in good shape. Therefore, he starts Fall Training in mid-August with a morning session at 6 a.m. for two hours and an afternoon session at 4 p.m. Dehydration is not so much a worry to Coach Golding as it was to the local physicians who were sometimes called to treat the dehydrated athletes.

The team practices six days a week from August throughout the season which ends in November or December depending on whether the team makes the playoffs or not. None of the players complain about the heat or the work but they are sweaty when every practice session ends.

Team members return to the locker rooms after practice, remove their sweat shirts and pads, and walk naked into the team shower room where 10 or 12 of them are showering and playing around for another half hour after the workout.

The Wichita Falls team runs the single wing formation with a blocking back, a wing back a full back, and tailback who calls the plays and the snaps. Jimmy Sides, full back, is candidate for All-State, popular, charismatic, and a faithful member of the 10th Street Baptist Church.

We have a challenge this year, Coach Golding says. Every school in Texas is out to get us. And rightfully so, we are the best high school team in Texas and we have the best full back in Texas, Jimmy Sides. I don’t mean to put anyone down, but if you want to be better than Jimmy, you’ve got to show it in practice and in the games. He is the best player in Texas, so let’s go out and give him the support he needs to win this game.

The other players like Jimmy. He plays with his heart and he treats his teammates like equals. Jimmy loves the fans and at 6 ft. 1 in. he is a perfect size for high school senior. Jimmy is calm, poised and focused and when the time comes, he puts all 195 pounds into his run. He mostly takes the ball from the center and bashes into the line, off guard, off tackle, or around end. Just for an occasional surprise, he will run out for a pass in the flat, and he is hard to bring down once he catches the ball.

By 7:15 the stands are full, 15,000 fans are ready for a 7:30 kickoff. Both teams kneel for a prayer before returning to the locker rooms for a final briefing from Coach Golding. Jimmy, the team captain, leads the prayer.

Lord, thank you for allowing us to play this great game against our rival from Dallas, the Woodrow Wilson Mustangs. Please help us to play hard and fair and to bring home another win for our team. Thank you.

Billie Hamilton leads the cheerleaders. She is. a vivacious blonde with a great figure and a dynamic personality-- agile and swift, .. the fans love her along with her other cheerleading mates,. Jeanie Williams and Sue Jackson and two boys, Ralph De Long and Jimmy Pruitt. They cheered:

Go, go, go, go Coyotes

Fight, fight, fight, fight Coyotes

Win, win, win, win Coyotes

Go, fight, and win!

The crowd yelled; the band played the team fight song and Billie and her team lead the singing of the school anthem. Some of the fans shed tears as they prepare for kickoff.

The Coyotes receive and take the ball for a 20-yard return from the 10. Jimmy Sides gets the ball on the first play and plunges into the right guard position for a four-yard gain. The Coyotes play fundamental block and tackle football, three or four yards or sometimes more on every play. It’s a winning strategy. They are on track to make the finals for the third out of four years.

You’ve been working since August for this game. You can win it too, but you must remember: play with your heart. Never quit; play the entire game, 48 minutes, 4 quarters of 12 minutes each. Never let up or feel sorry for your opponents. If they want more points they must earn them. Now get out there and let’s notch one more victory on our belt. Go Coyotes.

The players are pumped. They jump