Growing up in an integrated South Philadelphia neighborhood, Owen Gowans had no idea that walking through the gates of Girard College would open doors for boys who came after him.
“Being 8 years old, mom said, ‘You had to go,'” Gowans said. “I had to go.”
Gowans was one of the first four African American boys to desegregate Girard College.
“I came here to go to school, that’s all I knew,” Gowans said.
Owen Gowans
CBS Philadelphia
Girard College was founded by Stephen Girard, who stated in his will that it would be a school to educate White orphan boys only.
Outside the college’s walls, children — some as young as 14 — were fighting for that moment. They called themselves Freedom Fighters, just teenagers on the front lines of the civil rights movement in Philadelphia. It started with just a handful of them showing up.
It then became the longest continuous demonstration in U.S. history. From May 1, 1965, to Dec. 17. Seven months, 17 days, led by NAACP President Cecil B. Moore.
Desegregation demonstrations outside Girard College
CBS Philadelphia
The demonstrations put Philadelphia at the center of the civil rights movement. It soon drew national attention and a visit from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Many of the demonstrators, including those sitting around this table, were arrested, but the fight came with a cost.
Civil rights freedom fighters who demonstrated to desegregate Girard College
CBS Philadelphia
Bernyce Mills-DeVaughn says her sister Debbie, just 14, was badly beaten. It became Philadelphia’s version of Bloody Sunday.
“The police dogs jumped on Debbie and started mauling her,” Mills-DeVaughn said.
Then and now, decades later, the Freedom Fighters knew it was worth it.
“I tell people all the time, I’m a benefactor,” Gowans said.
At these gates on Sept. 11, 1968, four Black students and two Asian American boys broke the color barrier at the boarding school.
Today, Girard College is nearly 93% Black. Within a month of Gowans and the other three boys being admitted, African American students began pouring into Girard College. Children paved the way for other children and changed the course of history.
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