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THE HISTORY OF JOHN MUIR

THE GOLDEN YEARS 1954 - 1985

Turmoil, Pride and Integrated Achievement

by

Bob Barnes

"Mr. Superintendent, I present to you 294 candidates for graduation from Eliot Junior High School."  It was June 1954 in that same Rose Bowl graduation ceremony described by John Zweers.  While John Muir College's last graduating class may have marched "into forgotten history" that day, my 293 white 10th grade colleagues and I were excited, not simply because we were ending four wonderful years at Eliot, but because in September we were going to become students at John Muir High (the first new class at a very old "new" school).  The campus had been used for many things since it opened in the 1920's, but the John Muir High School we know today began on Monday, September 13, 1954.  Exiting?  You bet.  Though, at the time, none of us could have imagined how truly exciting the times would become.

As a member of the incoming junior class (there would be just 11th and 12th graders for the first few years) I was a witness to history in the making.  And I was not alone in my excitement. We noted in our yearbook, Elioteer, under "some '54 events we won't forget," "visiting the Corona Del Mar tide pools . . . winning the city gymnastics championship for the 22nd straight time in a row . . . (and) programming for Muir."

Part of our positive anticipation arose from our knowledge that, for the first time in our young lives, some of our classmates would not be white.  Though our entire collective life experience had been limited by de facto segregation, restrictive covenants and "gentlemen's agreements," (Eliot had 1,300 white students, administrators, teachers, counselors, coaches, custodians, gardeners, secretaries, and cafeteria workers), we had been taught by talented, thoughtful and progressive teachers and parents.  Though our view of "brotherhood" was by today's standards hopelessly paternalistic, we quickly embraced Muir, as did our new Black, Asian, and Hispanic classmates.  I recall absolutely no racial conflict or hostility then at Muir.  In the Pasadena Unified School District's often-turbulent 70's and 80's, while there were incidents, my biggest frustration with students was academic apathy, not an absence of spirit or brotherhood.

While the climate in Pasadena was calm that first day of school in September 1954, across the country things were heating up.  A mob of students at an all-white high school in West Virginia staged a walk out to protest the enrollment of 14 Black students into their school.  Sadly, the mob mentality won out that day, and the "powers to be" sent the 14 students packing -- back to their "Negro school."

Of the 609 Muir seniors pictured in my 1956 Hoofbeats, 526 are Anglo, 10 are Hispanic, 56 are Black and 17 are Asian.  Despite those lopsided numbers, he elected A.S. B. officers (then called "The A.S. B. Big Four") covered almost every base.  The treasurer was Asian, the secretary (essentially the Vice-President) was a white female, and our bright, popular and charismatic A.S. B. President was Black.  No, it wasn't an accident.  We had consciously, happily elected this young Black male as our leader.

I don't think any of us left Muir without feeling pride and accomplishment and forever positively changed by what we had experienced and accomplished together.  Unfortunately, we represented a pitifully small segment of our greater society.  Indeed, every town and city in our valley, including our own citizens of Altadena and Pasadena were completely segregated.  In September 1957, more than three years after the unanimous Brown decision (which abolished the laws requiring or permitting segregated schools), President Eisenhower belatedly sent 1,000 Army paratroopers to Central High School in Little Rock where an entire city had gone into a frenzy over the admission of nine Black students into a previously all-white school.  Little did we realize that soon a Federal Court Judge would be speaking directly to us in Pasadena, and that our behavior would also become national news.

Mr. Zweers touched on at least five separate themes that I'd like to include in my look back at Muir.
1.  Muir as the "other school."
2.  The popularity and longevity of Muir principals (soon to change dramatically).
3.  Non-restrictive and prolific campus clubs.
4.  "A most unusual bond between faculty and student."
5   "WE ARE JOHN MUIR."

To this list I'll add,
6.  Racial harmony, brotherhood and exceptional leadership from students.
7.  A devoted and talented teaching staff (often supplying administrative leadership) in for the long haul and at Muir during very turbulent years by choice.  If I don't say another word about these seven defining characteristics, know that they form my core beliefs about what made Muir great.

It's tough being a high school in a city where there is a newer school named for the city.  Muir was not simply the underdog on the football field, where "Poor Muir" (with both words dragged out) was often heard as an organized yell from the opponent's rooting section, it was definitely a "step child" in the eyes of the Pasadena business, social and educational establishments as well.  "The other school" mentality often overt, more often covert, prevailed well into the 90's -- perhaps existing even today.  When Al Fortune (Muir Principal 1990-1992) quit Muir to return to the tranquility of Massachusetts, he lift behind a student body that he adored and a downtown administration for which he had lost respect.  He, as well as anyone, understood firsthand the "other school" mentality. 

Fortune was not the last principal for whom Muir provided a brief tenure, and many did not leave with the genuine success and affection that Fortune had earned.  With the exception of Dr. James Vernable, who lasted eight years before quitting in complete frustration in 1968, Rufus Mead's 12years (John Muir College, 1946-1954) have not, to date, been repeated.  From opening day in 1954 to graduation day 2001, thirteen different principals or acting principals have served at Muir.  Some retired, some simply moved on, and several were removed.  In fairness to principals, they have little power and often are caught between a demanding downtown bureaucracy and the expectations -- or demands -- of often unified and articulate teachers, students and parents.  Several of the 13 were weak leaders who undermined our school, and several of the strong ones, brought in to "straighten out Muir, " focused on straightening out the teachers, little realizing, or perhaps not caring, that it was the teachers and students who most often held things together.  Look at the number of Muir teachers who themselves were students at Muir, and who also moved into the Muir district so their own kids could attend our school.  It is a long list, and each of us felt a special bond, a desire to protect and nurture "our" school.

Most often, "teacher power" or "student power" in the PUSD is orientated and not continuous.  As a leader for many years in first the PEA and later the local AFT, I would quickly admit that, with a few exceptions, our rival organizations were rarely united or effective.  We spent so much time fighting each other that only great issues (integration supported by busing and academic freedom, for example) united us in a clear voice.  Often, district-wide change began with innovation and leadership at Muir.  In 1967, an incident at Muir would produce a crisis that would divide the school and change the way Americans view grooming and dress.

Paul Finot, a Muir social studies teacher, returned from his spring vacation in Mexico having grown a beard. 
I doubt that Finot had much more in mind initially than tweaking an increasingly uncomfortable principal, Dr. Vernable.  But Vernable's knee jerk reaction, banning him from school and later assigning him as a "home teacher" (I still can't follow that logic) prompted a Federal court battle that literally changed the unwritten dress code for teachers.  The judge sided with Finot, and even today when a principal or board does battle with a nose ring, tattoo, or tongue stud, on student or faculty, the Finot case is cited.

Having shot himself in one foot, Vernable was intent on drilling the other.  Still popular with many faculty, or still a firm father figure to others, he supported a petition (after the court had vindicated Finot) signed by 114 Muir teachers, administrators and counselors, urging Superintendent Dr. Robert Jenkins to reassign Finot to another school.  When word of this unique "solution" reached me (I was teaching at Eliot and wearing a tie and crew cut), I couldn't resist sending a letter to the Pasadena Star-News.  It concluded, while admitting that Finot was annoying, "we are only as free as we allow others to be . . . don't ostracize a man for exercising his rights . . ."

In the fall of 1956, sophomores were added to Muir and the campus was becoming crowded.  With the new class of students came new staff members to teach them.  Every inch of classroom space had to be utilized, and was.

The campus as you knew it in 1976 looked drastically different to students arriving in 1954.  The gym was where the library is now, and where the "D" building is now used to be tennis courts.  In 1957, a major redesign of the campus was started.  It would take several years to complete and would include a new library, gymnasium facilities, a building to house the music and English departments, a larger lunch area, a new auto shop, a playing field for girls' sports, and expanded faculty and student parking lots.

The new parts of Muir were very much in contrast with the old remaining buildings on campus, most dating back to 1926, others to World War II, but it was a start.  A start that was never fully finished.  The conventional wisdom is that the 1957-1962 construction was just supposed to be a primer.  Supposedly it was a temporary facelift until bigger and better plans could go into place within 20 years.  Unfortunately, as the story goes, 20 years later, the PUSD had other priorities for its cash.  The "other school" would have to live with its dilapidated conditions for the foreseeable future.  By 2001, to the naked eye at least, the only thing new on the Muir campus seems to be the numerous coats of paint on the buildings -- many built and barely maintained since 1926. 

But buildings were not the only things that were changing the Muir landscape in the 1960s.

For years, Muir's racial breakdown had been held in precarious balance by our feeder schools (Eliot, La Canada, McKinley, and Washington Junior High Schools).  By 1964, the overcrowding at Muir had become such a problem that a new high school, Blair, was opened to relieve some of the stress.  The overcrowding at Pasadena Schools was the end result of the "baby boom," when service-men returned home from World War II in the mid-40's and created families.  By the mid-50's, those babies were now of school age and needed a place to learn.

The opening of Blair to the south had little if any effect on the racial breakdown of Muir.  However, the balance was about to be changed forever in 1967 when the city of La Canada decided to open its own high school.  While this may not sound like an earthshaking development, it was.  In the span of one summer, all of the white high school students from La Canada stopped attending Muir.  Up until that time, whites were the clear majority on campus.  From 1964 to 1967, the white population dropped in half.  Black student numbers were relatively unchanged, but almost overnight, their percentage in the racial mix doubled.

Following in the sizable wake of the La Canada exodus, white parents in the affluent San Rafael and Linda Vista areas of Pasadena protested that their babies deserved to be at the brand new high school in "nearby" La Canada and not at the still overcrowded and quickly deteriorating Muir.  When the powers that be rejected their request outright, many parents moved within the La Canada school district or put their children in private school, or worse, lied about their addresses to make sure their kids attended La Canada High.  The upshot was that overnight the face of Muir was irreversibly changed.

An even bigger, even more important issue was on the way and during this monumental struggle, the community that was John Muir would appear as a "shining city on a hill."

In 1964, though Pasadena had a minority population that was growing rapidly, the school system was completely segregated.  My first assignment in the PUSD was at all-white Wilson Junior High School.  The following year I transferred to Eliot, where Blacks had now reached 14% of the student population (by 1970, it would be more than 25%).  The transfer I had managed as a teacher was impractical for students and parents wishing to experience integrated schools, and in 1968, the Rosker, Spangler, and Clarke families (two with students at Muir) filed a lawsuit against the Board of Education charging racial discrimination.  Soon the United States Department of Justice intervened in their behalf.

Pasadenans were stunned when in early 1970, a Federal Judge ordered us to devise a plan to integrate all of our schools.  Some of us were thrilled.  Having just transferred to Muir, I again felt compelled to write a letter to the Star-News.  I had no clear idea at the time if my letter represented the sentiment of a minority or majority of Pasadena citizens.  "The United States acting through a Federal Judge has offered Pasadena a rare second change -- an opportunity to put the American Dream into practice . . .   In 1954, we applauded the Supreme Court school desegregation decision, and never dreamed hat the Court included us.  Well, today minority students were demanding their rights and courts are supporting their demands, and we, no longer in complete control of our destiny and the destiny of our minority brothers, act surprised, hurt and indignant.  And because we are still deep down inside 'white supremacists,' we view integration as a plot to take the whites and give to blacks, rather than as a chance for all men to experience, live and grow together.  Judge Manuel Real, recognizing full well our right to appeal, stall and equivocate, has forced us to at least pause and reflect on our position, and given us a chance to be better than we cold be on our own. If we can all brave and accept temporary inconveniences, artificialities, and traumas, we will see our brothers lifted to a full level of participation, opportunity and equality, and in the process we may save our white souls." 

The school board moderates working in contrast with Ramon C. Cortines (not yet superintendent) and others, developed an integration program that would require a massive busing effort, but would completely integrate every school in the district.  At Muir we had lost hundreds of white students to La Canada High School, and as Black families continued to move to Pasadena, westside schools faced the certainty of re-segregation.  The prospect of all Black schools is no more satisfactory to an integrationist than that of all white schools.  Muir had already demonstrated both the possibilities and advantages of integration, now the entire community could follow its lead.  And follow it did, kicking and screaming.

Soon opponents of "forced busing" mounted a citywide recall effort against Engholm, La Motte and Lowe.  These truly moderate, but decent people were being vilified as radicals and worse.  The recall was narrowly defeated.  In its lead editorial on October 15, 1970, the Los Angeles Times said, "The Pasadena Unified School District has chosen to look with boldness to the future instead of in confusion to the past . . . the failure of the recall now opens the way to the reconciliation and the community stability upon which Pasadena's future depends . . ."

There was to be little stability, for while some citizens moved away and put their kids in private school (the phenomenon known as "white flight"), a great many people, some without any children of school age, determined to fight integration by defeating busing.

The 1970 Hoofbeats thanked the school board for "sending more Eliot Junior High graduates to Muir, and implementing a less restrictive dress code, including pants for girls."  In 1971, under the heading "Vote No . . . No . . . No . . . Board Survives Recall," Hoofbeats congratulated the board and reminded them that "the majority of the community was behind them."  Ray Cortines was welcomed as the first semester's acting principal.  Elias Galvan would take over the reins in the spring of 1971.  They welcomed John Muir High's first modern day freshman class.

While national and international events and the assassinations of our political leaders had radicalized a generation of students, local politics also turned students and teachers into activists, with Muir teachers usually in the vanguard.  We strongly supported busing, we fought for collective bargaining, and defended Cortines (he became superintendent in 1972) in his struggles to educate board conservatives and other board moderates.  In 1973, the "anti-busing" slate of Vetterli, Myers and Newton defeated the school board moderates.  In its lead editorial, five days before the March 7, election,  the Los Angeles Times warned, "a community suffers from separation, whether it is a separation of Blacks from whites or rich from poor.  Sometimes there is no ready solution to the separation.  In Pasadena there is.  That has been demonstrated . . . citizens would take an awesome risk in abandoning their adaptation to the present in an effort to return to the past that can never be again.  That is something to keep in mind in voting Tuesday."

If the new board majority could not immediately dismantle busing, they could and did find other ways to disrupt Pasadena education.  Early in 1974, the board exercised its censorship powers.  Again, a Times  lead editorial, "On Banning Books and Reality," put the issue clearly in perspective.  Speaking of the two banned texts from the "Voices of Man" series, "Face to Face" and "As I grew Older" (both English supplemental texts at Muir), the Times said, "We wanted to find out why a majority of the Pasadena Board of Education judged them unfit and despite the contrary recommendation of the superintendent and staff, barred them from high school shelves. To tell the truth, we didn't find out.  The board majority judged them sadistic, morbid and sick . . . we found the books exciting, relevant, and of consequence to today's world . . . One board member expressed what must be the preference of the majority, advocating books to 'uplift students and give them hope rather than continue to rub their noses in the mire.'  If that is what the board is about, we have a hard time grasping its opposition to these books. For these books communicate an uplift of spirit.  To talk of the blacks or the struggle for freedom or the futility of violence is not to rub noses in mire but to rise eyes to reality and do something about it."

Before the board attached these "integrated" books, most of us outside the English department had not even known of "The Voices of Man."  Before they were removed from the textbook room and tucked away.  I obtained copies of each book and made sure to read them often to my students. My favorite story was John Henrick Clarke's inspiring "The Boy Who Painted Christ Black."

On a more positive note, the board allocated funds for a much-needed renovation of the Muir campus.  The last renovation had been started in 1957 and completed in 1962.  The N building (which would house math and foreign language classes, as well as the photo lab) was built, the H building and other holdovers from the World War II era were removed.  The counselors' building (E) got a complete makeover (including central air condition -- a rare commodity on the Muir campus) and a Little Theatre was erected.

By 1977, no moderate voice emanated from the five-member school board.  In that year's school board election, the "moderate" board candidates lost to the anti-busing faction.  One year later, Cortines, now little more than a figurehead superintendent, was fired.  Again, the Los Angeles Times responded in a lead editorial, "The Decision for Disorder,"  "The board's legal authority is no in question; its wisdom is.  Cortines achieved considerable success in reconciling various Pasadena elements over a highly divisive issue.  The board's action was a decision for disorder against stability."  In 1979, moderates Knack and Hickambottom were elected to the board and Cortines was re-hired as superintendent.

Did Muir remain a turbulent place after 1980?  Oh yes.  Principal James Snyder (who started in early 1976) was replaced in mid-school year 1980-1981 by Dr. Stanley Sheinkopf, a former Muir teacher from the 60's.  He and assistant principal Sterling Williams worked tirelessly to bring compassion and stability to Muir, but on February 9, 1984, a Star-News headline announced "Muir High Officials Ousted."  Discussing the re-assignment of Sheinkipf and Williams, Cortines said, "No one is having the magnitude of problems in every area that Muir is."  Among other issues, he cited a master schedule where 62% of the students experienced programming problems."

By the mid-80's, the drop in enrollment on the campus was becoming noticeable and specialized classes were being canceled due to lack of attendance.  School plays were now a thing of the past -- "The Sound of Music" in 1980 would be the last major production staged by the music and drama departments in Rufus Mead Auditorium until the late 90's.  In the 80's, the hottest seat in the community was still in the principal's office at John Muir. In 1985, Jimmie Charles was brought in from Eliot as "interim administrator-in-charge," a job that would be short-lived.  Following Charles, three more principals would try their luck at riding the unpredictable John Muir reins.

Webmasters Note:  
Bob Barnes, is a John Muir High School Hall of Fame 
inductee from the Class of 1956.  He joined the faculty 
in 1970, leaving in 1990.  The above article, originally 
commissioned by the Class of 1976, is reproduced here 
with his permission.
  

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