Florida Historical Markers Programs - Marker Detail

Description: Side One: In the 1940s, during the era of segregation, children of color living in Belle Glade attended Everglades Vocational High School, which served grades 1-12. In 1955, the school was renamed Lake Shore High School and served grades 7-12. Titusville native and Florida A&M College graduate Charles M. McCurdy served as Lake Shore’s first and only principal. With its mascot, the Mighty Bobcats (The Mucksteppers), the school provided an educational opportunity for African American children to dream and realize a different future. It served Belle Glade and small feeder communities, including Ritta, Watson Quarters, Lake Harbor, Bean City, South Shore, South Bay, Okeechobee Center and Raidersville. Belle Glade public schools integrated in 1970, sixteen years after the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. Lake Shore merged with the former white only high school, Belle Glade High School. Due to his race, McCurdy was deemed unfit to be principal of the integrated Glades Central High School, and was demoted. In 1974, he went to court to challenge the Palm Beach County School Board’s actions, and won. He was instated as principal, but McCurdy’s career was cut short with his untimely death in 1975. Side Two: SCHOOL SONG Dear Lake Shore High, Thy name we’ll adore Thy walls and halls forever more To thee we’ll pledge our loyalty We’ll strive for thee eternally School of our dreams We’ll always be true May God protect what e’er you do Dear Lake Shore High, long may you stand In this our country, this our land