As the student’s accounts and experience being pioneers of desegregation show, this period of history was met with mixed feelings among the students who experienced it firsthand. Most approached the fateful day with fear and tension with the chaos of Little Rock fresh in their minds. They knew that it wouldn’t be easy, but they were optimistic for the better opportunities they would gain by leaving their prior schools and comfort zones. When the day came for them to transfer to schools that their relatives only dreamed of attending, they met little resistance when they entered the school. Although this was a relief for these students, they still faced some opposition at first from their teachers and fellow classmates initially. As time went on, tensions lessened and the students were able to embrace change and to finally see each other as equals and even lifetime friends. The following are some of their stories:
- Rita Pendleton
- The only black eighth-grader at Spotsylvania Senior High School.
- “At first it was terrible, They didn’t want to touch you and they didn’t want to sit next to you. It seemed like they were always yelling at you and calling you a nigger or a jungle bunny”.
-
“Integration we lost our heritage. We became socially involved, but we lost our heritage.”
- Mozelle Taylor
- One of the black students to attend R.E Lee Elementary, and one of first blacks to attend riding a bus in Spotsylvania.
- “We did not feel they were getting the education at other school all black John J. Wright Consolidated School.
-
“You know it wasn’t until 20 years later that I got mad at my mother for what they put me through. I think all my fear has been suppressed for all those years and I didn’t know it. But it all come back and as a result I think I’ve come to terms with my blackness.
- Karen L. Williams
- “Some teachers would ask us “Why can’t you be in your own school?””
- “One day a kid called me a jungle bunny, and I started to cry and told the teacher. The teacher calmed me down by telling me I was from Africa, so what was so bad about being called a jungle bunny?”.
- Integration is like a nice little blanket that allows us to not address our problems. I think it’s important to remember that Spotsylvania is still a southern county in Virginia.
- Sharon Taylor McGlone
- One of three blacks to desegregate Spotsylvania High School in 1963.
- “We had to wait for our principal who took us into class after everyone else was already in there. We walked in and there are all these white faces staring at us. It was like the principal was saying “Here they are!””
- About her son Damon now – “I saw him lose his identity. And I think it’s important to his heritage to know what happened only 20 years ago, and what it was like for us” [1]
- Larry Evans
- A white student who was going to Stafford High School when it was integrated.
- He remembers the tension in the air when the first 25 black students entered the school for the first time and the fear that trouble would follow, but no trouble occurred.
- “I was a 16-year-old white boy whose idea of an important social question was whether the color of my socks matched the color of my shirt. It made no difference to me, one way or the other, whether I went to school with ‘colored’ people.” [2]
- Robert Jeter
- One of the first black students to enroll at Stafford High School
- Evans talking about Jeter: “He wanted an opportunity to a decent education and he wanted to compete in athletics against schools with large enrollments which usually ensured they had better teams. He knew he wasn’t getting either opportunity at the other school…”
- Jeter also thought there would be trouble due to what he saw in the media regarding integration in other parts of the country.
- When he arrived at the school he noticed that there weren’t any white parents protesting: ‘“I knew I had half a chance then,’ said Jeter. ‘Keeping those parents off the campus that morning was the best thing they could have done.’” [1]
<<Other Schools JMHS Student Perspectives>>
Works Cited:
[1] Evans, L. (1972, September 13). Desegregation: ‘I was nervous…I was scared’. The Free Lance Star
[2] The Free Lance Star. (1963, August 29). Crossing the Line. The Free Lance Star [Fredericksburg].
[3] Evans, L. (1972, September 13). Desegregation: ‘I was nervous…I was scared’. The Free Lance Star