Oak Ridge is set to break ground on a permanent monument honoring the Scarboro 85, the group of Black students who desegregated the city's schools in September 1955. The public groundbreaking ceremony will run from 10 to 11 a.m. at A.K. Bissell Park, where the monument is being designed near the Peace Pavilion and the International Friendship Bell.
The Scarboro 85 monument marks the culmination of a years-long effort to create a permanent place to remember and share the students' story, according to Knoxville News Sentinel. The 85 students previously attended the all-Black Scarboro School before entering previously all-white classrooms at Oak Ridge High School and Robertsville Junior High School on September 6, 1955, per the same report. They are recognized as the first students to desegregate a government-run school system in the Southeast.
John Spratling, president of the Scarboro 85 Monument Foundation, called the monument an important moment for Oak Ridge and for those who believe education, courage and community can create lasting change, the outlet reports. The Scarboro 85 Monument Foundation will host the groundbreaking ceremony, with plans developed through collaboration between the foundation, the City of Oak Ridge, Anderson County and community supporters.
Why Oak Ridge Desegregated Before the Rest of the South
Oak Ridge's early integration traces back to December 1953, when Manhattan Project veteran and town council chair Waldo Cohn persuaded the Oak Ridge Advisory Town Council to vote 4-2 to petition the Atomic Energy Commission to integrate local classrooms under federal military rules, according to the American Nuclear Society. Because Oak Ridge was a federally operated atomic city under Atomic Energy Commission jurisdiction rather than the state of Tennessee, the AEC issued an official directive in January 1955 ordering local public schools to integrate despite the state constitution's ban on racially mixed classrooms at the time, per the City of Oak Ridge.
That federal mechanism let Oak Ridge desegregate its schools without public violence a full year before Clinton High School in neighboring Anderson County integrated under state authority in September 1956 as the Clinton 12, an effort that met intense opposition and the 1958 bombing of the school, according to The Courier News. Oak Ridge later temporarily hosted Clinton students after that bombing, the outlet notes. The all-Black Scarboro Elementary School in Gamble Valley itself remained open until 1967, when it closed and its remaining Black elementary students were integrated and bused throughout the Oak Ridge city school system, according to Wikipedia.
A Monument Built From Earth and Steel
The memorial's design, created by demian::wilbur::architects and landscape architecture firm MKSK, calls for 85 closely spaced rammed-earth pillars representing each individual student, arranged in two converging walls around a plaza featuring Corten steel monoliths honoring key community change-makers, according to MKSK Landscape Architecture. The rammed-earth elements use locally sourced soils, symbolically tying each pillar to the ground the students walked. The overall memorial carries a projected cost of $4.2 million for its full national civil rights memorial layout in A.K. Bissell Park, per Livability, with the campaign managed by the Scarboro 85 Monument Foundation.
In April 2025, the Tennessee General Assembly approved $3.2 million in state funding for the project, allocating $2.7 million toward design and construction and $500,000 for national public education, tourism development and Black heritage preservation, according to WBIR. Governor Bill Lee had proposed the funding within the state's 2025-2026 budget. Beyond state and city support, the project has drawn backing from Anderson County, community members and donors, the United Way of Anderson, Campbell, Morgan and Scott Counties, and both the Anderson County and Oak Ridge Chambers of Commerce.
Cementing a Legacy in State Curriculum and Federal Recognition
The Scarboro 85 story is now embedded in Tennessee's K-12 public school curriculum. In February 2024, the Tennessee Department of Education formally updated state social studies standards, codified under T.C.A. § 49-6-1006, to mandate instruction on the Scarboro 85 starting in the fifth grade, a change Robertsville Middle School teacher John Spratling led community advocacy to secure, according to WBIR. Spratling's dual role as both the classroom advocate for the curriculum mandate and president of the monument foundation underscores how closely the educational and memorial efforts have been intertwined.
The recognition has reached the federal level as well. In September 2024, the full Tennessee congressional delegation, led by U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn and Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, introduced a federal resolution celebrating the Scarboro 85 on the 69th anniversary of Oak Ridge school integration, according to the Office of U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn. The resolution was co-sponsored by the entire state delegation. The American Nuclear Society had already recognized the group's connection to Oak Ridge's nuclear legacy in 2021, awarding the Scarboro 85 its inaugural Social Responsibility in the Nuclear Community Award, noting that many of the 85 students were children of Manhattan Project workers.
Once complete, the monument will provide a place for visitors to learn about the experiences and contributions of the Scarboro 85, ensuring the students' courage, sacrifice and accomplishments are remembered for generations, per the Knoxville News Sentinel's report. The groundbreaking ceremony is open to the public.
-4.webp?w=160&h=400&fit=crop&crop=edges)
