On Aug. 30, 1961, nine African-American students entered four previously all-white Atlanta high schools in what Time magazine called at the time “the smoothest token school integration ever seen in the Deep South .... without so much as a white catcall.”
Jean Steinhaus witnessed some of that momentous change from her vantage across the street from Northside High and took great satisfaction in it, even though it was but a token beginning. After all, she had contributed considerably to maintaining calm and order that day.
During the previous summer months, Mrs. Steinhaus had been deeply involved in the preparations of OASIS (Organizations Assisting Schools in September). She had conducted numerous biracial gatherings of teenagers with the goal of smoothing the desegregation process as much as possible.
Her daughter, Kathryn Carmichael of Marietta, a teenager herself at the time, chauffeured her mother around to those meetings.
“Mom always took the lead,” she said, “rehearsing the students on what to expect and encouraging them to speak out about their feelings and their fears.”
“Mom’s approach was unfailingly nonconfrontational,” her daughter said. “She practiced gentle persuasion.”
Mrs. Steinhaus had a way of winning people over, said another daughter, Carolyn Steinhaus of Atlanta.
“We met a neighbor when we moved here who was staunchly opposed to school integration,” she said. “Over a period of years he softened, thanks in part in her urging. A decade later, he came by our house to tell her that after some hesitation he had welcomed into his house an African-American friend his son had brought home with him from the University of Georgia.”
Mila Jean Steinhaus, 89, died June 15 at her Atlanta residence after a recent stroke. A memorial service will be at 6 p.m. Sunday at Central Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, 2676 Clairmont Road N.E., Atlanta. SouthCare Cremation & Funeral Society in Alpharetta is in charge of arrangements.
Her daughters described Mrs. Steinhaus as a dedicated educator. A University of Wisconsin graduate, she taught high school math in Madison, Wis., and later in Decatur after her husband of 59 years, Dr. John Steinhaus, joined the faculty at Emory University’s School of Medicine in 1958. Dr. Steinhaus died last February.
She took the education of her own children and their classmates seriously, volunteering as room mother at Fernbank and Kittredge schools and presiding as president of the PTA at Briarcliff High School, not to mention leading a Girl Scout troop.
Mrs. Steinhaus was a past president of the Emory University Women’s Club and in that capacity helped organize and raise funds for the renovation of Houston Mill House, a hospitality venue for the university.
A Women’s Club colleague, Barbara Hund of Atlanta, said Mrs. Steinhaus was a tennis enthusiast, so competitive that she continued playing even though a doctor advised her to quit after she had a hip replacement.
She also had a soft spot for pets, allowing her children to keep countless cats and dogs. Mrs. Carmichael said her mother did regret it, however, when her son’s pet snakes occasionally got loose in the house, despite the fact they were nonvenomous.
Survivors also include two other daughters, Barbara Steinhaus of Clarkesville and Elizabeth Steinhaus of Sandy Springs; a son, William Steinhaus of Milton; a brother, Hulbert Pinkerton of Madison, Wis.; nine grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; and three great-great-grandchildren.
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