School Board Elects First Black President

The Ann Arbor Board of Education last night elected its first black president. Dr. Harold J. Lockett, 44, vice president of the board last year, was elected to the presidency in a unanimous vote. He was unopposed. Lockett is beginning his fifth year on the board. He was reelected to his second term in June of 1968, leading the slate of candidates. Elected vice president - also uanimously and without opposition - was Charles H. Good. Good, 38, a manufacturers' representative with the George Haber Co. of Detroit, was elected to the Washtenaw Intermedíate District Board of Education June 2 for a two-year term. With last nïght's vote, the Ann Arbor board returned to its traditional practice of electing a president and vice president unanimously and by voice vote. Last July, Joseph R. Julin defeated William C. Godfrey for the presidency on the third secret ballot, following two tie votes. At that time, the election of a vice president was delayed after 4-to-4 tie votes were cast four times for Lockett and Trustee Paul H. Johnson. Mrs. Emma Wheeler; president of the Ann Arbor chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) congratulated the board for "making history today" with the selection of Lockett. She said the election of a black president is a "very fine step." Lockett told The News he is "pleased to be elected. I hope to serve the board and the public adequately in the coming year." He said he looks forward to a "challenging year," and in his position, will be able to "enter the fray more specifically." Lockett said one of his goals as president will be to rttake the Ann Arbor school system a "quality" system for all students, including those with learning and other problems. The new board president is a child psychiatrist. He is tor of the day-care program and language clinic at Hawthorne Center, located on the grounds of Northville State Hospital. Lockett also is engaged in private psychiatrie practice in Ann Arbor, and serves St. Francis Home for Boys in Detroit, Si. Peter's Home for Boys, the Ferndale School System and the Learning Improvement Center of the Waterford Township School District. A resident of Ann Arbor since 1953, Lockett received his bachelor's degree from the University of Indiana and his doctor of medicine degree at Meharry Medical College, Nashville, Tenn. He is a diplómate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in psychiatry and child psychiatry, and is a member of the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatrie Association and the American Orthosychiatric Association. He and his wife, Betty, and their daughter, Cherie, live at 319 Brookside. Good holds bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Michigan. Hhe has served on the board of Perry Nursery School and the Lawtoni School Parent-Teacher Organization, and has been a member of the United Fund Budget Committee, the Chamber of Commerce Long Range Planning Committee and the Citizens' School Committee. Good is serving his last yearl of a three-year term. He wasl first elected to the board in 1967.1 He lives with his wife andj their three children at 14211 Roxbury. In other business last night, George Balas, the school district's business manager, was re-elected secretary-treasurer, a post he has held since 1948. The oath of office was administered to new Trustees Henry Johnson, Cecil W. Warner and Ronald C. Bishop by Balas. They were elected to three-year terms last month. To complete its reorganization procedures, the trustees tentatively adopted the board operating procedures, policies and code of ethics.