Chapter 5: Graduate Study and Jim Crow: The Circular Migration of Southern Black Educators, 1945–1970

Mrs. Lottie Thornton recalled this conversation on a train while traveling home to Jackson, Mississippi from The Ohio State University where she was a graduate student during the late 1940s. A Jackson State College graduate and teacher in Florence, Mississippi, Mrs. Thornton was encouraged to attend Ohio State by colleagues at Jackson State College, including President Jacob Reddix, and by an Ohio State alumnus with whom she taught. Thornton graduated from Ohio State in 1948, and while she spoke very highly of the program, campus, and faculty, she had no intentions of staying away from Mississippi for the long term. After returning to Florence, she continued teaching, was promoted to principal, and eventually helped found the Early Childhood Education Center at Jackson State University. As she noted, “I knew where the need was, I was right in the midst of it, so I just never entertained the idea of going anywhere else.”²