PERRY HIGH SCHOOL '77:
CLASS OF
THEIR OWN
Parents stand outside Perry High School after a series of fights between black and white students, Sept. 15, 1970. (Albert M. Herrmann Jr./Pittsburgh Press)
Story by Elizabeth Behrman
Photos by Michael M. Santiago
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Story by Elizabeth Behrman | Photos by Michael M. Santiago
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
In the 1970s, Pittsburgh Perry High School in Perry North frequently made headlines because of racial tension at the school and the surrounding community.
The Class of 1977 arrived as freshmen to a school characterized by frequent fights among black and white students that often poured out of the building and onto Perrysville Avenue. The tensions reflected the racial unrest of the time, compounded by issues from the surrounding and rapidly changing North Side neighborhoods that fed into the school, former students say
But by the time they graduated in 1977, things were starting to improve, alumni said, largely because the students united to put a stop to the fighting.
More than four decades later, nearly 50 members of the 150-student class still gather every other year for reunions, reminiscing about football and a Thursday mystery lunch special they dubbed “the hunk.”
They recently spoke with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about their high school years.
George Arent, a city fire captain, is injured in a fight between black and white students at Perry High School, Sept. 15, 1970. (Pittsburgh Press)
Damon Blankenship
Damon Blankenship
Retired, National Guard
Retired, National Guard
Mr. Blankenship was the youngest of five children in his family to attend Perry.
He never knew what sparked the racial unrest at Perry, and tried to stay out of it, he said.
But he remembers kids throwing snowballs, and heard of black students being dragged back onto “tripper” buses to be driven back to their homes in Northview Heights.
“I looked after everybody,” Mr. Blankenship said. “The tensions wasn’t just with our class. It was short-lived. We all got smarter as we got older.”
Kevin Farrow
Retired, Port Authority
When the Class of ‘77 arrived at Perry, some of the older students would try to “instigate things.” Mr. Farrow remembers other students throwing things at his bus.
The football team was a major unifying force at Perry. The team was a mix of black and white players, including Mr. Farrow. But other teams were still segregated, he said. The basketball team had mostly black players. The cheerleaders were mostly white.
“I think we just got along,” he said about the football team. “There was some younger guys and some older guys, and I think we just clicked. We were pretty much on a mission. We were more unified and we had a goal and we knew the talent we had.”
Bob Boyd
Retired, Matthews International Corporation
Bob Boyd
Retired, Matthews International Corporation
Perry High School was always integrated, but things were especially tense during the ‘60s and 70s as the neighborhoods changed and there were issues in other areas with forced busing.
Mr. Boyd said it felt like some of the racial unrest was “fizzling” out when his class arrived at Perry. The senior class ahead of his couldn’t agree on anything to do with the prom, and had two separate and segregated dances.
“It seemed like in my class we just didn't have that separation that they had in ‘76,” he said. “I don’t remember anybody boycotting our prom.”
“It starts at the dinner table, let’s put it that way. It’s what you’re taught.”
Sharon Brentley
Perry High School teacher
Ms. Brentley started in 10th grade at Perry High School in 1974, after her family moved from Arlington Heights to Northview Heights to help care for a sick aunt.
She recalls she was terrified, and not just because she was starting high school. About three days after the first day of school, there was a race riot.
“The white boys lined up on one side and the black boys lined up on the other side and they met in the middle,” she said. “And it was hell.”
Almost 42 years after she graduated, Sharon Brentley still shows up for school every day at Perry High School.
Now a history teacher at the school she attended, she makes sure her students know all about Perry in the 1970s.
Sharon Brentley looks over the work of her students, Gamar Muya, left, and Destiny Jenkins, right, during a 10th-grade world history class on Friday, Feb. 15, 2019, at Perry High School. (Michael M. Santiago/Post-Gazette)
A few days after she started at the school in the 10th grade, fights broke out.
“I was scared to death,” she said. “It’s a high school where there was a race riot. And I was like, ‘What the hell did we get into?’ It was very traumatic.”
State data show that 77 percent of Perry’s roughly 400 students are black. More than half the students enrolled in the Pittsburgh Public Schools are black.
Ms. Brentley said she always reminds her ninth-grade civics students what a privilege it is for the black and white students to be in the same classroom together.
She tells them she was spit on as a student, and they can’t believe it. The N-word is forbidden in her classroom.
“I go hard when I teach that,” Ms. Brentley said.
Barb Mohan
FedEx employee
After attending a mostly white Catholic school through eighth grade, Ms. Mohan enrolled at Perry. It was a “complete culture shock” to switch to a diverse public school where teachers sometimes struggled to maintain order.
Her freshman and sophomore years especially were marked with riots and fights among some of the white and black students at the school. During one, she was slammed up against a wall.
“I remember coming in to school and somebody wrote the N-word on the sidewalk and the teachers came and put the carpets on the outside sidewalk so nobody would see it,” she said. “And then that started something. It was like, crazy. It was just nuts.”
Michael Phillips
Director of Penn State University admissions in Pittsburgh
Michael Phillips
Director of Penn State University admissions in Pittsburgh
Everybody got along during football season because the team was so good, said Mr. Phillips, the former quarterback.
During their freshman and sophomore years, he remembers riots where the black students would hole up inside the school while the white students, their families and their dogs lined up outside until the police came.
That eventually stopped because the Class of ‘77 stuck together to end it.
“We made sure that we kept our group together,” he said. “We didn't want to have the white students and the black students. When we became juniors, the riots became less and less because of us.”
Salena Zito
CNN contributor and writer
The race riots reached their peak with the Class of ‘76.
The Class of ‘77 decided they didn’t want to have the separate prom dances, and they didn’t want anything to do with the racially charged mobs stampeding through the school or across the front lawn, Ms. Zito said. By the time they were the upperclassmen, they were able to step in and break up fights started by students in lower grades.
“We tried to set a good example to the younger students and try to just show them by example by our behavior and how we treated each other,” she said. “I think part of it had to do with how much we all enjoyed each other's company and we had good parents. That kept us out of the fray, if you will.”
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CREDITS
STORY
Elizabeth Behrman
@ebehrman
ebehrman@post-gazette.com
PHOTOS
Michael M. Santiago
@msantiagophotos
msantiago@post-gazette.com
DESIGN
Tyler Pecyna
@tyler_pecyna
tpecyna@post-gazette.com