When two schools became one --

In 1967, Jasper schools were still practicing "freedom of choice," in which black students could choose to attend predominantly white schools, but few did. The years 1967-68 were marked by highs and lows of social turmoil and amazing progress:

In January, 1967, NASA launched the first Apollo mission to orbit the earth. By December, 1968, astronauts on Apollo 8 were orbiting the moon.

On the national scene, Lyndon Johnson was president. Teamster Jimmy Hoffa was still alive and serving time for attempting to bribe a jury.

Internationally, Berlin was two cities divided by a wall, and the capital city of China, Peking, announced that country's first successful test of a hydrogen bomb. The United States was engaged in a cold war with the Soviet Union and a hot war in Vietnam.

Aretha Franklin released "Respect," a song that was hailed as a landmark in the feminist movement, and named one of Rolling Stone's 500 greatest songs of all time.

The Beatles released their album, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," and then treated 400 million viewers to the first live international satellite television program featuring, "All you need is love." That became the theme for the Summer of Love, hippies and flower children everywhere.

In Loving vs. Virginia, the U.S. Supreme Court declared all state laws prohibiting interracial marriage to be illegal. Later that year, Thurgood Marshall became the first African American to be sworn in as a Justice of the Supreme Court. Martin Luther King was assassinated in April, 1968, and Bobby Kennedy in June. The Vietnam war had seven more years to go.

Meanwhile, back in Jasper, cable television became available. As a result, appliance stores enjoyed a huge surge in business as people decided replace black and white televisions with color.

Jasper Independent School District became one unified school system when Rowe closed as a high school, and two schools became one pack o' dawgs.