Desegregation monument groundbreaking Sept. 3
A groundbreaking ceremony for the Scarboro 85 monument will be held on Thursday, Sept. 3, from 10 a.m. until 11 a.m. at A.K. Bissell Park, 1403 Oak Ridge Turnpike, Oak Ridge.
It will be open to the public.
The monument will honor the first 85 Black students to desegregate Oak Ridge Schools on Sept. 6, 1955, entering Robertsville Junior High and Oak Ridge High School.
The Scarboro 85 name refers to the Scarboro school and neighborhood from which the students came.
The monument, managed by the Scarboro 85 Monument Foundation has multiple sources of funding, among them $125,000 from Anderson County.
Foundation President John Spratling listed other sources of funding including $125,000 from the city of Oak Ridge, $3.2 million from the state of Tennessee and $1.5 million from an anonymous donor.