interesting look back at integration

Parent Cafe
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I belong to an FB group called “I Grew up in Hometown”. A very interesting gentleman recently joined in telling us about his book about the black side of town and growing up there. This week he posted a picture of an old newspaper page dated 1964 with headline
“Fall Term Integrated…Requests Approved: Two Students Accepted at AHS.” And a small subline “Elementary Transfers Denied”. Central was the black high school. Below is our subsequent discussion, the author mentioned is T.R.:

Me: T.R., I’m afraid I going to have to admit to total stupidity and ignorance here. I was 13 and in eighth grade when we integrated at the junior high. I always assumed that the black schools closed and all the black children then came to the other city schools. This article makes it sound like they had to apply to go to AHS??? Did Central High stay open as an option as well as the other black schools?

T.R.: I am not quite sure. My thinking is the high school of Central closed, but the elementary portion stayed open for quite some time. I know because I went to Central for 2 years as an elementary school. I have always thought that it was totally screwed up that when Central closed as an elementary school, all of us Black kids had to go into predominately White neighborhoods and schools to go to school, but OUR school was closed and NONE of the White kids had to come into our community to attend school. It was also messed up that a number of Central teachers did not have their contracts renewed once Central closed. Those who were blessed enough got other positions elsewhere.

Me: Being only 13, I’m afraid I was completely oblivious. You are right, of course, not fair at all.

A.S.E.: My family and I had moved away from Asheboro in 1961, so I was unaware of any of this history, but you are right that it was unfair that your schools were closed and that no whites were integrated into your schools.

T.R.: I am hoping some of my uhm…uhm, let’s say…more mature Black Community residents, will chime in to educate us more on this period in our History.

V.U.P.: As [Me] remembers, the first black children came to 8th grade at then Junior High, in South A…I had no idea it was a gradual thing, and they had to apply…

T.R.: I am not sure that it worked that way for all Black children. I think my sister first attended F_____ Street School, but I’ll ask her.

J.C.L.: I lived in L______ and was in 3rd grade when schools integrated. The school I went to, I do not believe there were applications. I do not believe there was a choice. Kids were bussed like it or not. I loved making new friends - I found it an exciting time…

E.H.V. : I went to elementary school at L_____ Park, and remember that the kids from Central joined us during the 68-69 school year. I see this article is from 1964.

Me: A______ Junior High was absolutely integrated for the '64-65 school year. So judging by what EHV says, it seems not all the black children did integrate that year and I am pretty sure no white children were taken to the historically black elementary school. Not right, really. Seems something is amiss here and now I’m really curious!

T.R.: I was told by a very reliable source that the Superintendent at the time, GBT, was to have said that Central ws not kept open, “Because White parents would not feel safe sending their kids to a Black school.” No one with power within the administrative school apparatus seemed to bother to ask, or cared, whether Black parents felt safe sending their kids to White schools.

Me: I’m sorry. frown emoticon

T.R.: Ms. C. [me] , it’s not your fault, so no need to apologize. This is just one of trillions of these types of things that has happened throughout American History. No one ever gets used to, or should, to such things. They are what they are. I feel sorry for some of the Black teachers who were not able to get jobs at White schools, and who had their teacher contracts canceled once Central closed. A careful reading of some of the newspaper articles of that period reveal an administrative mindset who assumed that the Black teachers were inferior to White teachers, and a subtle kind of spite that came out in punishment of Black teachers by the cancellation of their contracts just for the mere fact of integration. One would have to read the articles carefully to pick up on this."

Very interesting to me. As I said, I was an oblivious young teen who thought everything was hunky-dory, man look how we had progressed. Drat. Can’t help but feel bad that it wasn’t so great for the black community after all.

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I have had a similar experience with an “I grew up in…” FB page. I was 12 years old when race riots erupted in our town. I only had the white perspective on this, and the story was that “outside agitators” caused the whole thing. I grew up proud of my multicultural town anyway. But as I grew up, I learned more about the Civil Rights movement, and wanted to know what really did start those riots. But newspapers and the internet were lacking, and still are.

So when I joined my “I grew up in” FB, I was fascinated to see how different the memories of the West side kids were. People and stores and dances that I didn’t know anything about. Yet a lot of white kids lived on the West side, and remembered the same things. Most of the black “kids” had happy memories, and were sad to see the decline of the town. Some had harsh words about the unofficial segregation, which really hit home when someone asked “What was your summer job?” and a black guy responded that there was no way any black kid would get hired for these jobs that we remembered so fondly. And I couldn’t remember a single black kid that worked alongside me.

Some West side residents claimed that the riots were caused because some of the local cops used to harass a certain group of young black men, and one day the heat and the boredom became intolerable, and the whole town went crazy. I don’t have any real facts about any of it, except I do know it was a very hot summer. And a tragic time for my town.

I wound up FB friending a black guy around my age, because he said he had photos of the riots, and he’d share them with anybody. They were old press photos, but they were interesting, and I wound up enjoying his point of view on his community and on race relations.

Lately, not too many black members have been sharing their memories, so I think the group, while still fun, has lost a lot of its depth.