Jesse M. Bethel High School is a high school located in Vallejo, California. It is part of the Vallejo City Unified School District. The school opened in the Fall of 1998, with only two student body classes. Each year after, more students were entered in, however those students were required to take entrance/exit exams. The first students who attended the school were highly in favor of feedback for the build of the school system. Those students not only voted for the school mascot, but they also chose the main sports and many of the extra curricular.
Jesse Moncell Bethel
" I'm a human being first. I don't make a big to-do about the color." " I was interested in the education of the children of Vallejo. It's not a black thing; it's a human thing."
Jesse Moncell Bethel was born in New York City. He was orphaned at age three and was raised by his grandmother. He attended elementary school in Ohio, Arkansas and Oklahoma. A defining moment in his life was when at age 14, observed a 27 year old lawyer defend a young black man accused of murder in Hugo, Oklahoma. That young lawyer became one of Jesse Bethel's idols and he was the future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. He dreamed of becoming a civil rights lawyer and majored in prelaw at Tillotson College, Austin, Texas, until Pearl Harbor and World War II forced him to change his course. While at Tillotson College, he read that Mare Island needed chemists, so he switched his major and got a deferment earning a B.S. degree in chemistry in 1944. He married his college sweetheart, Claudia Nichols. A month after graduation, they moved to Vallejo to work at Mare Island Naval Shipyard . As a non-veteran, he did not anticipate that his career at Mare Island would continue. But a vacancy appeared and he stayed 30 years as the first Black chemist. By the time of his retirement 30 years later, he was Chief Chemist of the Nuclear Power Division. During his tenure at Mare Island, he analyzed material used in reactor planned construction, nuclear propulsion pant systems and did some radio chemistry on nuclear submarines. He received many commendations for his work on nuclear powered submarines. In 1968, the interracial Citizens Political Action Committee of Vallejo formed to elect a black person to the school board. The committee contacted a dozen potential candidates, including Jesse Bethel. He accepting the challenge if no one else wished to run, he was encouraged by family, friends, fellow-employees, and church-goers. He then worked as a State Farm Insurance Agent, retiring in 1989. Jesse and Claudia had three children: Marilyn, an accounting cost engineer with B.A.R.T.; Jesse Jr., Attorney-Legal Counsel to the Governor of the Virgin Islands; and Veronica, a State Farm Insurance Agent. Through his son, Jesse Jr., he realized his youthful dream of becoming a civil rights lawyer. Jesse Moncel Bethel emphasized that a good education is a way out for the poor and underprivileged and a great asset to all Americans. Jesse Bethel Senior High School was named in his honor in October, 1991. Also the famous alumni of this school include Kelvin Brooks, Allen Bridges, Cameron Kelly,Stanley Gill,and Travareas Vaughn.
