The Love, Joy, Pain, and Agony in a Public School System

The plantation mind set continued in the sixties in a school district in the northeastern section of the United States.  Betty Lou experienced this first handed when she arrived at this school.  She was assigned to a fourth grade class that was 100% white.  This is an experience that Betty Lou could never forget, or want to forget.

This school had an older principal who never married a man, or her job.  Betty Lou thought the old gray principal was easy going and lazy.  Maybe she was on her last assignment and was ready for retirement.  She had given the system her best years before Betty Lou met her.  Several African American teachers worked at this school.  One, or two African Americans conducted themselves as house niggers.  One male seemed to enjoy trying to be in charge of the black teachers.  This job was not given to him, but the poor old Champ thought that he should speak for all the black teachers.  Mr. Champ was too silly to be in charge of himself.  Mr. Champ's name was changed to Mr. Gossip.  Mr. Gossip thought that he knew everything about everybody.  He was so excited to have children in his class, whose parents worked as professionals.  He would walk around, asking this stupid question.  Do you know who this student's parent is?  He made himself look stupid, worrying about the students who had parents who worked for the school board.  Mr. Gossip was a big liar, and this was agony for Betty Lou.  He always had news about what the principal had said about African American teachers.  When the principal was confronted with such gossip, Ms. Mopsy, the principal denied all what he had said.

Days as a teacher from the beginning were rewarding at this school.  The school had many positive features.  The school had a large student body that was 90% white, there were a few other ethnic groups, but not any black students.  The school was not one ethnic group by choice, but it was demanded by the powerful parents support.  Think about the late sixties, and try to visualize a school in a northeastern city that would not allow African American students to attend a school with white students.  A number of African American students wanted to attend this school in the northeastern section of the city.  Rumors had it that the children learned more in this particular school; African Americans had this belief.  The African American parents did not understand that the children in this school came to school with good skills; their experiences were different.  African American parents thought the schools in the northeast section of the city could perform miracles.

It seemed rather strange to Betty Lou to listen to all the talk about integrating schools all over the USA, the deep south, mid west, and other sections of the country, and one great parent group had so much white power; they keep African Americans out of their school.

These African American children's grandparents could clean houses, cook, wash, iron, and baby sit, but were not allowed to sit beside those white students in school.  This took place in the late sixties in a school in the northeast, not the southeast.  African American women have cleaned, cooked, washed, and baby sit for years, but could not live in the same neighborhood as their employers.  Were white parents afraid that African American students would have learned that all white students are not academically talented?  This school had African American teachers, Betty Lou was a part of that group of teachers, but said no, when students and their parents tried to have African Americans bused to their school.  It is said all the time "all men are created equal."  The great founding fathers should be careful of what they say about equality.