The 1971 Edmunds Class Rings

There has been some controversy as to who was the last Edmunds High School graduating class.

The answer is simple as pie… The school name was changed back to it original name "Sumter High School" in the fall of 1970 at the beginning of the Class of 1971's senior year. It was at that exact moment that the Class of 1970 became the last graduating class of Edmunds High School.

But there still is an anomaly. In fact there are more than 600 anomalies … The 1971 Edmunds High Class rings and the 1971 Lincoln High Class rings.

To get a better understanding let's to go back to 1969, the beginning of our junior year in both schools, when we ordered our class rings. We were all so excited when we received them before the end of our 11th grade school term, each one with our own initials inscribed inside. Each respective high school name, "Edmunds" or "Lincoln" was molded onto our rings with purple or blue stones reflecting our school colors. We wore them proudly all that summer of 1970 knowing that we finally made it and would soon be seniors in our beloved high schools.

All the while unaware until days before the start of our senior year that our dream was just a fairytale that never was to be.........

Both the mostly white Edmunds High school and the black Lincoln High school had to endure the inevitable cataclysmic change required to end school segregation in Sumter, South Carolina. They were merged to become Sumter High School with the seniors and juniors housed in the old Edmunds building and the sophomores separated away and housed in the old Lincoln building. To say it was a chaotic year would be an understatement. Everything had changed. Our beloved high schools no longer existed but the pride of our individual schools burned as strong in all of us as the inscriptions on our rings, the only thing we had left of the fairytale. So with academics more or less on the back burner, we all did the best we could and made it through somehow.

On June 1, 1971, to the relief of the Board of Education, the Sumter School System, the teachers, the parents and all of Sumter in general, the Class of 1971 graduated. That tumultuous year was over. As our classmate Warren Moise so melodically said it in his song, all we wanted to do is get in our cars, "Put it in drive" and "Ride" out of town.

In the end here are the facts:

• The last graduating class of Edmunds High School was indeed the Class of 1970.
• There were no "SUMTER HIGH SCHOOL 1971" class rings.
• All 1971 class rings have either "EDMUNDS HIGH SCHOOL 1971" or "LINCOLN HIGH SCHOOL 1971" inscriptions.

The picture above was taken by the Class of 1971 photographer, Louis Freedman, of his class ring. Please hover over the ring to zoom up close so you can examine the inscriptions more carefully.

Have you heard the song that Warren Moise wrote about our class? "Class of 71" The Story, The Song, The Lyrics.