"In creating Crispus Attucks High School, Indianapolis had hoped to remove black people — to segregate them — from the mainstream of city life. Yet this castoff school gave the city one of its most coveted awards — a state basketball championship.
"I was as unhappy as anyone when they closed the high school. Many of my fondest memories are associated with that school. But if you look at it another way, maybe the closing of Crispus Attucks marked the end of a sick social experiment.
"When we were fighting to keep it open, I couldn't help but think of another citizen of the community, Archie Greathouse, who, believing that segregation was wrong, filed a lawsuit in 1923 to keep Attucks from being built. He failed in his efforts to stop the school from being opened just as we were failing to stop it from being closed. There's a bitter irony, but I've always tried to stay positive. I try to look at that ending as a beginning. Maybe a lesson was learned. Maybe something good can come of it."
Star report
February 27, 2005
Books about Crispus Attucks High School and its
history:
• "But They Can't Beat Us." By Randy Roberts.
Sports Publishing Inc., copyright 1999 Indiana Historical
Society
• "Hail to the Green, Hail to the Gold." By
Stanley Warren, Ed.D. The Donning Company/Publishers, copyright
1998
• "The Big O. My Life, My Times, My Game." By
Oscar Robertson. Rodale Inc., copyright 2003
• "The Ray Crowe Story. A Legend in High
School Basketball." By Kerry D. Marshall. High School Basketball
Cards of America, copyright 1992
• "Hoosiers: The Fabulous Basketball Life of
Indiana." By Phillip M. Hoose. Guild Press of Indiana, copyright
1995
• "Winners." By John Gipson and Stan
Patton
• "Hallie's Comet: Breaking the Code." By
Hallie Bryant. R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co., copyright 2003
