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John A. Bell

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John A. Bell
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1959–1960Mississippi Vocational
Administrative career (AD unless noted)
1959–1961Mississippi Vocational
Head coaching record
Overall5–9–2
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
1 SCAC (1959)

John Anthony Bell (born 1929) was an American football coach and college athletics administrator, and later a civil rights officer in the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, with broad authority over several states.

Early life, education, and coaching career

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A native of Little Rock, Arkansas,[1] Bell earned a bachelor's degree from Philander Smith College in 1951,[2] where he was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity.[1] He earned a master's degree from the University of Arkansas,[1][2] receiving additional graduate education at Indiana University.[3][4] He was an assistant football coach at Lincoln High School in Fort Smith, Arkansas and then line and backfield coach at Texas College in Tyler, Texas.[5]

He served as the head football coach at Mississippi Vocational College (MVC)—now known as Mississippi Valley State University—in Itta Bena, Mississippi for two seasons. In his first season as head football coach at Mississippi Vocational, Bell led the team to the South Central Athletic Conference championship.[6][7][8] In his two years as head coach at MVC, he compiled a 5–9–2 record.[9]

Following his time at MVC, Bell was announced as the new Dean of Men at the historically black Knoxville College on July 7, 1961.[3][4] In that capacity, Bell denied a police claim that Knoxville College students had made up a significant proportion of participants in an anti-segregation rally in April 1963.[10] In September 1963, it was reported that Bell was one of two Knoxville College faculty members for whom the United Negro College Fund Faculty Fellowship Program had granted funds to pursue doctoral degrees, with the report stating that "Mr. Bell will study for a doctorate in physical education at the University of Georgia".[11][12] Bell thereafter received a Ph.D. from Indiana University,[2] receiving approval for his dissertation on the effects of certain recreational and academic factors on "Negro students enrolled in the secondary public schools of Eastern Tennessee".[13]

Educational civil rights career

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By December 1968, Bell had received his doctorate and was a program officer in the Texas Education Agency, and participated in a review of Lubbock County, Texas schools overseen by the United States Office of Education.[14] The following year, Bell testified about Lubbock's plans in a hearing on the matter in Dallas, questioning whether they would ever lead to integration of the district, and proposing two alternative plans to achieve this goal.[15][16] By October 1970, Bell was chief of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Office of Education in Dallas,[17] and by 1971, his title was reported as chief of the education branch of the Office of Civil Rights, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare,[18] from which position he continued to review Texas school district desegregation plans throughout the 1970s.[19][20][21][22]

In one incident in 1975, Bell learned that the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board was allowing the Ku Klux Klan to hold meetings in one of the schools during nonschool hours, and sent a telegram to the Board deeming this a violation of various federal regulations, threatening to cut off federal funding to the district; the Klan sued, and in 1978 the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled in favor of the Klan.[23] By June 1980, Bell was Director of the Education and Secondary Education Division of the Office of Civil Rights, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, a position from which he was responsible for the office examining complaints of discrimination in education in an area including New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma.[24][25][26]

By June 1989, Bell had left the government and established a private firm, Bell and Associates, School Desegregation and Educational Civil Rights Consultants.[27][28] In 1992, Bell was the commencement speaker at his first alma mater, Philander Smith College.[2] In 1996, the Galveston Independent School District invited Bell, as "a desegregation expert", to review its desegregation plans,[29] and in 1999 and 2000, Bell was a consultant for the United States Department of Justice in an investigation of desegregation progress in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, with Bell producing a report criticizing the school system for allowing "racially identifiable" schools to persist.[30]

Head coaching record

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Year Team Overall Conference Standing Bowl/playoffs
Mississippi Vocational Delta Devils (South Central Athletic Conference) (1959–1960)
1959 Mississippi Vocational 3–4–1 3–1 1st
1960 Mississippi Vocational 2–5–1
Mississippi Vocational: 5–9–2
Total: 5–9–2
      National championship         Conference title         Conference division title or championship game berth

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Coaches Named At Vocational". The Louisiana Weekly. New Orleans, Louisiana. July 25, 1959. p. 9. Retrieved December 10, 2022 – via Newspapers.com Open access icon.
  2. ^ a b c d Melody Goss, "74 Graduate in Spring Exercises", The Philanderian: Alumni News of Philander Smith College, Vol. 16, No. 3 (Spring 1992), p. 1-2.
  3. ^ a b "Faculty Members Employed", The Knoxville Journal (July 8, 1961), p. 8.
  4. ^ a b "Six Added to Knoxville College Faculty", The Knoxville News-Sentinel (July 9, 1961), p. 15.
  5. ^ "New Coaching Staff Named At M.V.C". Jackson Advocate. Jackson, Mississippi. July 25, 1959. p. 7. Retrieved November 28, 2022 – via Newspapers.com Open access icon.
  6. ^ "MVC Coach Wins SCAC Grid Title". Pittsburgh Courier. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. January 2, 1960. p. 2, section 2. Retrieved December 10, 2022 – via Newspapers.com Open access icon.
  7. ^ "MVC Wins SCAC Football Crown". Jackson Advocate. December 19, 1959. p. 6 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ "Bell Wins Title In Rookie year", The Louisiana Weekly (January 9, 1960), p. 10.
  9. ^ Mississippi Valley State University coaching records Archived August 21, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  10. ^ "Only 9 From KC at Rally, Dean Says", The Knoxville News-Sentinel (April 17, 1963), p. 2.
  11. ^ "2 KC Professors Seek Doctorates", The Knoxville News-Sentinel (September 29, 1963), p. 26.
  12. ^ "UNCF Grants to 34 Faculty-ites Of 32 Colleges Total $122,540", The Pittsburgh Courier (October 31, 1964), p. 12.
  13. ^ John Anthony Bell, "A Study of the Relationship Between Recreation Interest and Participation and Intelligence, Scholastic Achievement, Vocational Interest, and Socio-economic Status of Negro Students Enrolled in the Secondary Public Schools of Eastern Tennessee"; Thesis, 1966.
  14. ^ "HEW Asks School Closings", Lubbock Avalanche-Journal (December 19, 1968), p. 1-A, 14-A.
  15. ^ "Lubbock's Integration Plan Doubted By U.S.", Austin American-Statesman (October 30, 1969), p. A2.
  16. ^ "Integration At Lubbock Challenged", The Amarillo Globe-Times (October 30, 1969), p. 44.
  17. ^ "Gilmer School Board Plans Tax Guidelines", The Gilmer Mirror (October 22, 1970), p. 1, 14.
  18. ^ "Brady Schools Are Ordered To Stop Transfer Students", San Angelo Standard-Times (June 30, 1971), p. 7.
  19. ^ "Answer report", Betty Cardwell, Corpus Christi Caller-Times (February 16, 1973), p. 18C: "Signed by school board president Tom Mason, the response will be sent to Dr. John A. Bell of the OCR in Dallas".
  20. ^ "Ethnic plan postponed", Corpus Christi Caller-Times (April 5, 1974), p. 12D: "In the HEW reply, John A. Bell, chief of the Education Branch, Office of Civil Rights in Dallas, noted that his office had accepted a desegregation plan from the local school district".
  21. ^ "Ronald Ozio, "Schools get 60-day deadline to ready new bilingual plan", Corpus Christi Caller-Times (September 15, 1977), p. B-1: "In an eight-page letter, John A. Bell of the Dallas HEW office accused the district of failing to properly identify all students needing bilingual instruction... [and] set a 60-day deadline by which the district is to formulate a new bilingual plan".
  22. ^ "Discrimination alleged against school board", The Kinder Courier News (October 11, 1979), p. 1: "Kennard gave each copies of a letter he had received on October 1 from Dr. John A. Bell, HEW/Office of Civil Rights, Dallas, Texas".
  23. ^ Knights of Ku Klux Klan, Realm of Louisiana v. East Baton Rouge Parish School Bd., 578 F.2d 1122, 1123 (5th Cir. 1978).
  24. ^ Clinton Bragg, "Animas Schools deny civil rights complaint", The Deming Headlight (June 30, 1980), p. 9.
  25. ^ "Oakdale High To Have Discrimination Probe", The Oakdale Journal (June 10, 1981), p. 1.
  26. ^ "Sallisaw Corrects Civil Rights Violations", Sequoyah County Times (January 14, 1982), p. 1.
  27. ^ Keely Coghlan, "Consultant evaluates Ector desegregation", San Angelo Standard-Times (June 23, 1989), p. 1C.
  28. ^ Penny Brown Roberts, "Study cites low scores in schools", The Shreveport Times (November 19, 1992), p. 1.
  29. ^ Steve Mayo, "GISD takes steps towards fulfilling desegregation court order", The Galveston Daily News (November 22, 1996), p. A6-A7.
  30. ^ Todd Billiot, "Desegregation report criticizes area schools", The Lafayette Daily Advertiser (May 18, 2000), p. 1.
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  • "RACE AND SCHOOL SUSPENSIONS IN DALLAS", October 1972 letter from John A. Bell notifying Dallas school superintendent Nolan Estes of possible violations of the civil rights of black students
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