Year of total integration
1966.
Lumpkin seems to have desegregated in two parts. High school students were enrolled at Lumpkin County High in 1965. Hilltop Elementary closed in 1966.
Lumpkin did not have enough students for its own Black high school and had kept a contract with E.E. Butler High of Gainesville to bus the students there. The federal government put a stop to this at the end of the 1964-65 school term.
Superintendent G. Price Bowen announced the mandate at a board of education meeting in May 1965. In the May 14 edition, The Dahlonega Nugget said 250 were in attendance. It was reported that no one had a "strong objection" to Bowen's announcement.
The lack of major reaction could also be because Lumpkin was wanting to hold on to segregation in its schools as long as possible, though Bowen had a feeling it would not be for much, much longer. He predicted at the May 1965 meeting that Hilltop would be gone by the 1967-68 school year.
Bowen said he would keep Hilltop open as long he legally could, though he also threw in that it also depended on whether the Black community was also happy with the school. The May 14, 1965 Nugget said 25 students attended Hilltop.
It is unsure whether Hilltop was part of any Freedom of Choice plan. The board of education seemed to be asking, that since Lumpkin County High would now have the county's African-American students, that Hilltop be exempt for 1965-66. The Nugget said the federal government required "that at least four grades be integrated next fall."
Lumpkin was not entirely sure that it would be allowed to keep Hilltop even for one more year, but that probably happened. Hilltop is listed in the Georgia Educational Directory of 1965-66. A note in the August 19, 1966 Dahlonega Nugget seems to indicate that as well, stating that the feds said the desegregation plans had "adequate progress." The April 9, 1967 Atlanta Journal confirmed Hilltop did not open for the 1966-67 school year.
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