Welcome to the Boggs Academy National Alumni Association's website. It is our mission to apply all of the teachings that we learned while attending Boggs and other institutions, to today's applications and solutions to the commitment for Education. This is not a traditional Home Page, but rather a former student and graduate of Boggs Academy answering the questions: Did Boggs Academy make a difference in my life? Would I have been where I am now, had I not gone to Boggs Academy? What is the legacy of Boggs Academy?
Answers to Questions By Maceo V. Mays Boggs Academy, Class of 1969 Did Boggs Academy make a difference in my life? Would I have been where I am now, had I not gone to Boggs Academy? What is the legacy of Boggs Academy? I have pondered, ruminated and studied these questions over the years. In most instances, in trying to answer these questions, I end up with more questions. Questions such as, “What would have happened in my life had I NOT gone to Boggs Academy? Why is there such an intense, almost driven desire in me to see some version of Boggs Academy resurrected in today’s world. For some of these questions, I can provide a clear, resounding, succinct and assured answer. For instance, had I not gone to Boggs Academy, I am most assuredly certain that I would now be in one or a combination of circumstances involving the word “In”! That is, “incarcerated; “in my grave” or “intoxicated” to the point of addiction on some harmful, destructive substance(s). This is a strong statement, and to understand it, let me try and qualify it with what things were like for me before my mother and family made the fateful decision to send me to Boggs Academy.
As a young Black teenager growing up in a rural community in South Georgia, I was the ultimate under achiever! At a very early age, it was felt that I had a sharp intellect that allowed me to grasp concepts quickly and apply them when required. Because of that intellect, I “unofficially” attended first grade classes at the age of four years old. The intent was for me to stay in the first grade class until I was old enough to “officially” enroll in school. Because I was able to learn the first grade material, I went to the second grade class in the next school year. When I became old enough to enroll in school at six years old, I was advanced to the third grade. If you do the math you will see that at the age of 14 years old, I was a sophomore in high school. I mention this time because it was a pivotal point in my life. At the expense of my normal scholarly subjects, I’d also enrolled in the school of “social education”. This included social and anti-social behavior such as playing hooky, cutting class, insolence, attitude problems and some “adult” behavior for which I was just lucky or blessed to have survived. I attribute this survival to the old adage of “the Lord looks out for babies and fools”, and I was both! For those who were old enough to grasp the unrest, revolution and plain old meanness of the middle sixties, you will recall that this was the time of racial awakening and change. School desegration and integration was the rule of the land as set down by the United States Supreme Court. In that small South Georgia town where I was growing up, desegration and integration was accomplished by opening the doors of the all-white, city high school to Blacks. A few enterprising and brave Blacks made the move to the city high school in the first year of integration. After the first year of integration, I asked my mother if I could go to that school in the next school year. After I recovered from the emphatic and resounding “NO”, I resigned myself to continuing my “social education” while not paying much attention to my scholarly education. As a result of one particular instance of anti-social behavior, I landed in the city jail. I was there for about six hours until my mother and the pastor of our church, who was also the Junior High School principal came to get me out that afternoon. I can still vividly recall staring through the bars out into the parking lot as the car pulled in and the pastor came into the jail to get me.
Shortly after this incident, I took a series of standardized tests at school that included a psychological test. When my scores came back, my mother was asked to meet with the school principal and guidance counselor. The gist of that meeting was that I’d gotten an impressive score on the Scholastic Aptitude Test. I’d also gotten an impressive score on the psychological tests. However, the psych scores were not the laudatory type and raised concerns about my social development. A decision was made to have me repeat my sophomore year of high school. When I was told I was going to have to repeat (“left back”) the 10th grade, I asserted many of the bad habits and behavior I’d learned and stated that before I would repeat my sophomore year, I would run away from home. My mother who was sitting quietly listening then said to me, “what if you went to school at Boggs Academy”?It was as if I knew an epiphany was about to occur. I asked her if Boggs Academy was a reform school. She set about telling me what she knew about Boggs and the clincher was when she told me that two of my cousins were attending Boggs. Well, that did it for me. If I could go from a situation where the only family I had in the entire town was my mother, to a situation where I could “hang” with my cousins, then, I was all for it. So, on a warm late August day in 1967, I arrived on the campus of Boggs Academy. What followed for me was indeed a type of “reform” brought about by my experiences and the atmosphere at Boggs Academy. What I found at Boggs Academy was an atmosphere of excellence. The teachers, staff and students all were motivated and driven by a desire to excel and succeed. I can still vividly recall one particular student whose ambition was to be a translator at the United Nations. She would sit in the French lab during lunch and after class, repetitiously saying French phrases. At Boggs, teachers challenged students to not just grasp the simple ditty of “Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492”, but to ask why he embarked on his journey! To not just discuss the fall of the Roman Empire, but to ask the question, “why do societies fail?” Once the questions were asked, we would enter into discussion with other classmates on their opinions of the subject. At Boggs Academy, I had my “consciousness raised” when I learned about Blacks in society, many of whom I am certain I never would have heard, read or studied about had I stayed in that small South Georgia town. Boggs for me was the first inkling and acceptance of the premise that “Black is beautiful”!
Boggs provided a structure that required students to accept the responsibility of preparing ourselves and our environment for classes, recreation, spiritual learning, extra-curricula activities and even planning for our holiday vacations. Breakfast was at a certain time. If you chose not to get up and make it to the dining hall in time for breakfast, then you missed it! It was that simple! I no longer had the crutch of home and “mom” to put money in my pocket to get something to eat if I was late getting ready for school and missed breakfast. Boggs taught us about consequences in the form of merits and demerits for proper or improper actions and or inaction. If you got too many demerits, you were sent home. Boggs through the requirement for each senior to present an oration before we could graduate, gave me the confidence to voice my opinion and speak to an audience either extemporaneously or from prepared notes. The oration was not an easy circumstance when the teacher responsible for approving and rehearsing the orations was White, and the content of my oration was something along the lines of the mistreatment of Blacks in White America! Now, please do not get the idea that Boggs squelched our individuality or prohibited us from having fun! We played varsity sports, got to see movies almost every weekend, spent time in the student center dancing and socializing. We not only had fun with our schoolmates and classmates, but also with the staff and faculty of Boggs. As in many situations, we learned who to “mess” with and who to leave alone. For instance, we knew not to mess with the pastor of the Presbyterian Church, or the foreman of the “Farm” on the campus, because they did not play!But we could and did mess with one of our favorite teachers, who was the music and social studies teacher when I was there. We appreciated him so much that we gave him a nickname of “Hank”, after the Black singing group, Hank Ballad and the Midnighters. Another of our favorites was the Economics teacher, who was White. He allowed his students to produce and present their own product commercials and advertisements. In one of these classes, the school superintendent decided to watch the presentation of a student’s advertisement. The superintendent almost fell over the balcony when the student blew out from his mouth a stream of lighter fluid onto a lighted flame, producing a three foot flame!Of course the student had to have the fire coming from his mouth for the product he was selling, a mouthwash to cure “dragon breath”! That was fun! Boggs promoted an atmosphere that allowed us to find ourselves. We were provided the opportunity to identify and sharpen our talents and gifts so that we could focus on them. That atmosphere and those lessons went with me when I graduated from Boggs and they are with me more now than they were then. The answers to the original questions for me can be summed up like this. Yes, no! Boggs Academy made not only a difference, but THE difference in my life because it saved my life! I am also positive that I would not be where I am today, if not for my short time at Boggs Academy. The answer to the final question is a bit more ethereal that the first two answers! What is the legacy of Boggs Academy? I think it is the success, regardless of how you want to define it, of we the people, students, staff, faculty and friends who were there!Once we are gone, Boggs Academy will be no more! Boggs Academy closed in the mid 1980’s. This is the one regret I have concerning Boggs, that it is not available to make a difference for young people of today! I just KNOW it would have made a difference in their lives AND, they would have loved being there!
Boggs Academy National Alumni Association, Inc. 2008 A (501 c 3 Organization)
