It was September 1966. The country was in the grips of the civil rights movement. But the movement was just beginning to spread in other directions. Dr. Martin Luther King began speaking out about the Vietnam War. Black youth began taking a more militant stance. And the summer had been ablaze with riots in Chicago, Omaha, Cleveland and Dayton.
My father was taking a stand of his own by insisting his children enroll in Franklin Elementary School opposed to Jefferson Elementary where most of the black children in our community attended school. It was no secret that Jefferson was run down, and the school books were inferior. While black community leaders wanted to wait for the government to help enforce integration laws, Pops refused to wait any longer. He said the time was now.
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ReplyDeleteClearly, since you can't even write a proper sentence, 3:08.
ReplyDeleteIn 1969 in a town in central Florida called Thonotosassa I was the first and only white kid to go to an all black elementary school. My Mom was a fourth grade teacher, I was in third. She volunteered for the position as they were integrating Florida public schools. She says that she thought it would be a good experience for us and as a single mother she had no one to watch me, so I had to go to school with her, as I did all through grade school. They put me in a fifth grade class. Her car was vandalized several times that year at the school. Probably not by the kids. Most of the kids didn't quite know what to think of me, they all wanted to touch my hair. But I never got beat up or anything, in fact I think most of the other kids liked me, and I made several new friends. But it was only for that one year. Something I will always remember.
ReplyDelete819 great anectdote. Sorry I stopped reading the author's story way before the end. Your story sums it all up quite well; kids just wanting a good education, parents wanting the best for the kids, and the climate of fear/anger/violence at the time
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