CLINTON, Tenn. (WVLT) - Jo Ann Allen Boyce, a member of the Clinton 12 who broke the path for school desegregation in the southeast, has died. The news came from the Green McAdoo Cultural Center Thursday. She was 84.

“We’ve lost such a caring and humble soul. Jo Ann was someone who was so generous with her own story and shared it with people across the country,” the cultural center’s announcement said. “The people who met her were in awe and entirely grateful for her kindness. A student was so inspired by her story that they wept when they met her, and Jo Ann was quick to offer them a warm hug.”

Allen Boyce was one of 12 Black students who were among the first to attend Clinton High School in 1956. The Clinton 12 attended their first day at the school on Aug. 27 after a court order force

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