School Desegregation : a Oral Histories toward Understanding the Effects of White Domination

This book is written for the Millennial Generation to educate them about what school desegregation was actually about--the struggle over white domination in the United States. The textbooks they read as high school students describe the heroic efforts of African Americans to achieve civil rights but do not describe who was denying them these rights--white Americans. The oral histories in this book reveal how individuals navigated efforts to achieve educational equity amidst efforts to reassert white domination. These accounts counter the textbook history the Millennial Generation read which omits the massive white resistance to school desegregation, the various ways whites used subterfuge to slow down and redirect school desegregation in what would more benefit whites, and the concerted white political backlash that has been ensconced in educational policy and reform beginning with A Nation at Risk and continuing in No Child Left Behind . That is, educational policy as we know it is all about asserting white domination and not about educating children, and thus the Millennial Generation is faced with undoing what their parents and grandparents have done. Cover image by Echo Lilly Wilson TABLE OF CONTENTS 8 PROLOGUE: “I Began to See”: Barbara Lorie on School Desegregation 12 BARBARA LORIE’S BACKGROUND 13 BARBARA LORIE SPEAKS 13 COMMENTARY 21 REFERENCES 22 1. INTRODUCTION: School Desegregation and White Domination 24 REWRITING HISTORY 24 WHY THIS BOOK NOW? 26 THE PUBLIC TRANSCRIPT OF SCHOOL DESEGREGATION 28 THE REAL COST OF SCHOOL DESEGREGATION 32 “MASSIVE RESISTANCE”, SUBTERFUGE AND BACKLASH 34 THE ORAL HISTORIES 37 REFERENCES 39 PART 1: THE SHIFT TO DESEGREGATED SCHOOLS 42 2. REMEMBERING PREAND POST-DESEGREGATION IN NORTHEASTERN NORTH CAROLINA 43 NOTES 57 REFERENCES 57 3. EDUCATIONAL APARTHEID IN MACON/BIBB COUNTY, GEORGIA: An Oral History of Desegregation and Resegregation 58 REFERENCES 69 4. SEGREGATION AND DESEGREGATION IN PARSONS, KANSAS: Memories of Douglass School 1908–1958 – Narrative of Marietta Smith 71 DOUGLASS SCHOOL ORAL HISTORY PROJECT 72 DOUGLASS SCHOOL, PARSONS, KANSAS 73 THE NARRATIVE OF MARIETTA SMITH, DOUGLASS SCHOOL, PARSONS, KS, 1945–1954 74 NOTE 81 REFERENCES 81 5. A HISTORICALLY BLACK HIGH SCHOOL REMAINS INTACT: We Weren’t Thinking about White Students 82 INTRODUCTION 82 PARALLEL COMMUNITIES 83 DURHAM’S BLACK COMMUNITY 85 SCHOOL DESEGREGATION AT HILLSIDE? 87 NARRATIVE 89 INTERPRETATION 93 CONCLUSION 95 REFERENCES 95 PART 2: STUDENT EXPERIENCES 96 6. THE FINAL DAYS OF DOUGLASS SCHOOL: The Narrative of Andrew “Chip” Johnson 97 THE NARRATIVE OF ANDREW “CHIP” JOHNSON, DOUGLASS SCHOOL, PARSONS, KS, 1954–1958 98 REFERENCES 106 7. DAN EDWARDS1 REMEMBERING DESEGREGATION IN TAMPA: Introduction and Commentary by Barbara J. Shircliffe 107 INTRODUCTION 107 WHITE RESISTANCE TO DESEGREGATION IN TAMPA-HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY 108 DAN EDWARDS’ NARRATIVE 110 COMMENTARY 117 NOTES 120 8. EDUCATIONAL APARTHEID IN MACON/BIBB COUNTY, GEORGIA: An Oral History of Desegregation and Resegregation, Part II – Alethea’s Story 121 REFERENCES 132 9. MARILYN MATTHIEW1: REMEMBERING DESEGREGATION IN TAMPA: Introduction and Commentary by Barbara J. Shircliffe 134 INTRODUCTION 134 THE AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY AND DESEGREGATION IN TAMPA, FLORIDA 134 MARILYN MATTHIEW’S NARRATIVE 136 COMMENTARY 141 NOTES 143 10. JUST LET THEM HAVE THE SCHOOL: A White Student’s Perspective of School Desegregation 145 INTRODUCTION 145 PARALLEL COMMUNITIES 146 DURHAM’S WHITE COMMUNITY 146 DURHAM’S BLACK COMMUNITY 147 SCHOOL DESEGREGATION AT HISTORICALLY BLACK HILLSIDE HIGH SCHOOL 148 NARRATIVE BACKGROUND 149 EVA’S NARRATIVE – WHITE HILLSIDE HIGH SCHOOL ALUMNA, 1972–1974 150 DISCUSSION 153 CURRENT CONTEXT OF HILLSIDE 155 CONCLUSION 157 NOTES 157 REFERENCES 157 PART 3: IMPLEMENTATION AND ADMINISTRATION OF DESEGREGATED EDUCATION 159 11. AMBIVALENCE, ANGST, AND HOPE: Black Principals in Mississippi 160 DR. FENTON PETERS: AN AMBIVALENT DE-SEGREGATIONIST2 161 COMMENTARY 167 NOTES 171 REFERENCES 171 12. “IT’S TIME TO MAKE THINGS RIGHT”: Symbolic Order and the Limits of Imagination 173 ARRIVING IN CAMDEN 173 LOCATING CAMDEN: THE LAY OF THE LAND 174 MEETING MR. REVELLE 176 INVITING CHANGE 176 WHITE ARRIVAL: “I WOULDN'T LET MY HOGS LIVE IN A PLACE LIKE THIS” 180 PRO-INTEGRATION 182 “YOU’VE GOT TO TAKE CARE OF EVERYBODY” 182 “LARGELY IT’S SOMETHING I KIND OF WANT TO FORGET.” 183 DISCIPLINE IN BLACK AND WHITE 184 “JUST LIKE THAT, YOU KNOW, LOSING THE JOB OVER THERE. NOW HE NEVER HAD AN OPPORTUNITY TO DEFEND HIMSELF” 185 “WHEN WE UNDERSTAND WHERE ANOTHER PERSON IS COMING FROM, WE CAN QUITE OFTEN DO BETTER IN GETTING ALONG” 187 CONCLUSION 188 NOTES 189 REFERENCES 191 13. IMPLEMENTING THE “LAW OF THE LAND”: White Superintendents in Mississippi 192 INTRODUCTION 192 “IT’S THE LAW OF THE LAND”: TOM DULIN 195 COMMENTARY 202 NOTES 206 REFERENCES 206 CONCLUSION: White Backlash and Educational Reform – Then and Now 207 “A NATION AT RISK”—“A MANUFACTURED CRISIS” 208 SCHOOL REFORM –A MOVEMENT WITHOUT A FOUNDATION 212 EFFECTS OF THE BACKLASH ON STUDENTS OF COLOR 215 WHITE BENEFITS OF THE BACKLASH 223 UNLIVING A LIE 225 REFERENCES 231 CONTRIBUTORS 234 Front Matter....Pages i-xxii Introduction....Pages 1-18 Front Matter....Pages 19-19 Remembering Pre- and Post-Desegregation in Northeastern North Carolina....Pages 21-35 Educational Apartheid in Macon/Bibb County, Georgia....Pages 37-49 Segregation and Desegregation in Parsons, Kansas....Pages 51-61 A Historically Black High School Remains Intact....Pages 63-76 Front Matter....Pages 77-77 The Final Days of Douglass School....Pages 79-88 Dan Edwards 1 Remembering Desegregation in Tampa....Pages 89-102 Educational Apartheid in Macon/Bibb County, Georgia....Pages 103-115 Marilyn Matthiew 1 : Remembering Desegregation in Tampa....Pages 117-127 Just Let them have the School....Pages 129-142 Front Matter....Pages 143-143 Ambivalence, Angst, and Hope....Pages 145-157 “It’s Time to make Things Right”....Pages 159-177 Implementing the “Law of the Land”....Pages 179-193 Conclusion....Pages 195-221 Back Matter....Pages 223-225