For Those Of Us... Of Non-Tender Years... Name The School And The Year... You Were Integrated ???

[WillyT]

Me...

1965 - Alice Birney Elementary School.

The school that came over was Argonaut Elementary.

Became fast friends with my new school-mates.

[WillyT]

4. So... You Had A Problem With Busing ???

[ann---]

47. No. Why would you think I meant that?

If our schools were already integrated, I was all for EVERY school being integrated - even if it involved busing.

[Half-Century Man]

2. From the get go. Military brat.

My first schools were integrated. 1964-65?

[niyad]

3. obviously much older than you, but I cannot remember being in a non-integrated school. of course.

I was a military dependent, so that might have had something to do with it.

[longship]

5. 1953-54 Schultz School kindergarten, Detroit, MI. nt

[femmocrat]

6. I went to school in PA.

Our schools were always integrated as far as I know!

[NRaleighLiberal]

7. started elementary school in 1961, already integrated in Pawtucket, RI

J. C. Potter elementary.

I actually was a big rarity in the school - one of a handful of Protestants among a sea of Catholics! On Wednesday (released time, catechism, something like that) I was the only one in my class -helped the teacher organize the art room!

[WillyT]

8. LOL !!!

[gopiscrap]

9. When I came to the US I went to a Catholic School in Tacoma WA

and in 7th grade the nun principal came in with an African American man and woman and proceeded to tell us that the next day their two children would be going to our school. They trotted those poor folks around as if they were some kind of exhibit. The kids did much better than the adults, all we wanted to know was if the kid could play football and baseball decently and if he could run. That was 1969. The irony is now my wife teaches fifth grade and out of 26 kids only two of the kids are Caucasian.

[elleng]

10. Always.

1951 (?) P.S. 5, Brooklyn, NY

[WillyT]

22. :loveya:

[csziggy]

11. 1965 - Summerlin Institute, Bartow, Florida

The segregated black school was closed and all high school students went to the one high school in town. Elementary students were split between the two schools for their ages.

[Warpy]

12. 1965, one boy and one girl, both upper middle class

I was ahead of them and didn't share any classes with them but I've never felt so sorry for anyone before or since. They seemed to move through the halls in bubbles of silence.

I was told they'd made friends, though. I sincerely hope they did.

That "all white" school had been a joke, just like the rest of them. The whole human rainbow was represented except the colors from central and southern Africa.

ETA: NC

[Manifestor_of_Light]

13. Some time after I graduated in 1972.

Pasadena, Texas. Really redneck. Our government teacher explained their form of redlining--if a black family looks at a house, the agent will triple the price.

We had one black boy in our high school out of 3,500 students. His dad was the janitor at one of the banks.

[Blue_In_AK]

33. Hey, Manifestor, did you happen to catch Chris Hayes on Friday?

He had a whole segment on Pasadena and how they're trying to shut out the Hispanic voters. Things haven't changed much down there.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

39. Yes, I saw that.

I sent the link to a couple of my homies, including another Sam Rayburn graduate.

When I was a kid, the town had a few Hispanics but was pretty much all white, mostly blue collar refinery workers. The only Jews in town were doctors and their children.

The only black people I had contact with were the ladies who worked for my mother as maids.
I remember driving to Fidelity Manor, going through the Washburn Tunnel, to drop them off. Fidelity Manor is part of Galena Park. I was fascinated going in one lady's house, because it was an immaculately clean shotgun house. The bedroom had a popcorn bedspread and a Princess phone with a lighted dial. Because of the Princess phone, I thought these people were really hip.

I think that because we were Democrats and I had virtually no contact with black people, except at Democratic gatherings, my mom didn't want me to think badly of African-Americans, so she would tell me how great Ralph Bunche was.

[newfie11]

14. Most of my schools were in the west & SW

I don't remember ever being segregated.
NM, CA, CO,OR,TX. We moved lots due to Daddy being an IBEW electrician. I went to over 20 schools but do not ever remember segregation. There were times I was one of a few white kids. Maybe that's why I feel so at ease with other nationalities.
I was born in 1947.

[IrishAyes]

15. Like most military brats still alive, I don't really remember anything else.

There were times when we had to stay behind, and some of those occasions Catholic schools were not available. I always hated public school but that was probably due to the culture and not any racial makeup. Civilians are so fond of asking 'where are you from? what's your hometown?' that I finally realized an army base is my hometown. Doesn't matter where it's located.

Kind of funny, one time when I rode that awful OATS bus to the nearest real city for shopping, we stopped at one place and an Army chaplain was waiting when the door opened. He wanted to ask a question on behalf of his mother who lived nearby. When the driver said something cranky about me being on the bus, the chaplain bounded on board with a look of delight on his face. "Really?" he asked. "One of ours? Which one?" I waved at him.

But that's the point - no matter we'd never met before and never would again, there was a genuinely heartfelt connection. To him I was still "one of ours". It beats what I've found in much of the national culture at large, especially in xenophobic RedNeckLand. In this tiny burg I've gradually achieved a certain level of tolerance in some quarters, but no matter what, if I lived here another hundred years, I'd still be the outsider. Yet in a way I'll always have a far greater automatic acceptance with military personnel no matter what relative strangers we might be. That's what makes me a little homesick when I drive past a base.

[bmbmd]

16. August 1962. Levelland, Texas.

My good friend Ward came from the all black school, Carver School, to South Elementary. I knew our baseball team would be unbeatable.

[840high]

17. My schools were

always integrated.

[Brother Buzz]

18. Tamalpais Union High School, 1911

Google® William L. Patterson to appreciate the quality firebrands my school produced.

[WillyT]

21. You Were In High School In 1911 ???

Dude... I need your diet secrets.

[Brother Buzz]

23. I don't know if our schools were ever segregated

I learned diet from my gym coach, George Gustafson. He was an early health fanatic and actually mentored a young Jack LaLanne in the early thirties.


Here's a 1944 photo with 'Gus' in the upper left, can you spot Pat Paulsen?

[WillyT]

24. The Dude With The Tie ???

[Brother Buzz]

26. Pat Paulsen really is in that photograph

[WillyT]

27. Yeah... But There Is No Way You Were In High School In 1911... Unless You're 342...

Or something...

[Brother Buzz]

29. No, no, way back in the day, outr famous clock tower broke at 4:20

We simple lost all track of time for years and years.

[Blue_In_AK]

34. That makes me think of a David Crosby song. :)

[MADem]

31. Front row -- third from the right? nt

[Brother Buzz]

36. Yes

Pat scored 36 points that year, second highest on the team. They passed the ball around a lot.

[MADem]

37. If they had fun and got a little exercise, it's all good!

Winning championships is sometimes overrated!

[Brother Buzz]

41. I played football for four years

At my fortieth class reunion, I asked some of my teammates, "Did we ever actually win a game?". The general consensus was, "I don't think so". We had fun, I guess, but out of necessity, we embraced that theory, "winning championships is overrated!".

[MADem]

42. +1 .... I wasn't terribly talented in the "team sports" categories!

I subscribed to the "If you can't be an athlete, be an athletic supporter" maxim!

[MuseRider]

19. I can remember separate bathrooms, entrances and drinking fountains as a very

small child. Never understood it. When I started kindergarten, 1957, I was 4 years old. Things were still segregated but not the schools. My very best friend was one of the few black children at our school. My parents and her parents were pretty upset that we were inseparable at school. I have no idea what happened to her, she was gone the next year but it shaped my life I think. Neither of us could understand why were could not be friends outside of school. She lived in a shack, dirt floor with a cow and a goat tied outside. I lived a few blocks over in a middle class neighborhood. It was a pretty eye opening experience for a small child.

I always went to integrated schools, it was nowhere near equal representation. We were mostly white and Christian.

I grew up and was schooled in Topeka, Kansas after Brown V Board.

[WillyT]

25. Thank You For That !!!

[broiles]

20. 1958 Brackenridge High School, San Antonio, Texas.

My class was 1/3 anglo, 1/3 black, and 1/3 Hispanic.

[susanr516]

28. Sept. 1965

Clara Oliver Elementary, Dallas TX. DISD was facing loss of federal funding if the schools weren't desegregated by the start of the 65-66 school year. Out of 900 students in our school, maybe 30 were African-American. In my school, the AA students were split up between the classes so that there was only one AA student per class. They were relentlessly bullied, as was any white student who spoke to any of the AA students. It was ugly. I was 11 then (I'm 59 now) and it still hurts to think about it. I wish I had been brave enough to say something about the bullying.

[raging moderate]

30. About 1964.

Theodore Roosevelt High School in Chicago. Almost the last day of school, our wonderful new principal called a special all-school assembly. Once the opening ceremonies were concluded (singing of Go Rough Riders Go, etc.), he strode to the podium and announced enthusiastically, "I have GREAT news! Our school has won a stupendous contest! You didn't know it, but we have been observed and studied and analyzed all this year, and the Board of Education has given you its highest award. Our school has been declared one of the most academically advanced and ethically enlightened schools on the North Side of Chicago! (Applause! Cheers! Excitement!) And therefore, we have been awarded the privilege of receiving award-winning young scholars from the South Side of Chicago who will provide us with fresh perspective and enlarge our understanding of the world! This is a wonderful opportunity for all of you to participate in making history! These astounding young people are also contest-winners. They have passed a rigorous competition and are fully qualified to take advantage of our unique educational opportunities! I was so proud to tell the Board of Education that I know I can count on you to give these wonderful young Afro-Americans a real Rough Rider welcome! Now, when they start attending here in the fall, I expect every Rough Rider to do his or her best to welcome them, help them find their way around, sit with them at the lunch tables, and be a friend to them in any way you can. These are really wonderful young people, and we are lucky to have them!" (Applause! Cheers! Excitement! Repeated singing of Go Rough Riders Go, etc.).

And so they came, the next fall, for many of us the very first "Afro-Americans" we had ever met. They must have wondered why we all kept gathering around staring at them all the time with those wide smiles and wide eyes. Of course, we were looking at astounding award-winning geniuses, heroes and heroines who had overcome incredible odds. We hung on their every word. We were thrilled to have them there! (Actually, many of us WERE descended from Abolitionists or God-Wants-Justice Jews, and their presence in our school DID lend a certain vindication to our somewhat maligned family values). We elected one of them School President two years in a row!

And do you know what? Our principal was right! Those kids from the South Side, riding the Subway for what, an hour, every day, each way, to get to our school, really WERE heroes and heroines! And they really WERE great kids! I was kind of weird at the time, so poor, so discouraged, so sickly, from my dysfunctional family background. They really encouraged me, treated me like a human being. And I thought, If they can do this, then maybe I can break out of my pattern, too! I hope we helped them a little bit, too! I bet they all went on to do fine! And that kid we elected School President twice? I think we were right about him! I wonder how he turned out? I wish them all well! Very well! They really did change our school for the better!

[Blue_In_AK]

32. When I was small in Ohio our schools were integrated

(early '50s). We moved to Colorado in 1955, also integrated although there weren't many black kids in my part of town. Jr. High was more. Then we moved to Pasadena, Texas, for high school. South Houston High School at that time was pretty white. University of Houston was integrated. The year I started college (1964) was the first year U of H had integrated athletics.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

43. My big sister went to South Houston for one year.

Because they had not built Sam Rayburn yet. It opened in '64. She graduated in 1966.
I remember Mr. Lewis, the orchestra teacher at South Houston.

[Blue_In_AK]

44. I was in the choir.

Mr. Myers, but I remember Mr. Lewis.

[Major Hogwash]

35. I was lucky, the schools here weren't segregated.

When my older brother started going to school here in 1957, he had some white kids, as well as a few black kids, and some brown kids, and even girls in his grade at grade school!

When I started going to the same elementary school in 1962, there were 2 Indian (Native American) kids in the same grade, and we got along great.
One of them was a girl, and she was in my class and sat in the row beside me.
Boise, Idaho has the largest group of Basques living in America outside of the Basque region of Spain.
3 Basque kids were in my 1st grade class, and they taught me how to speak the Basque language a little bit, which is sort of like Spanish.

[Lint Head]

38. T L Hanna H.S., Anderson S.C. 1964.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

40. Robert E. Lee High School, Montgomery, AL, 1964

One girl, two guys, 12 sheriffs.

[Recursion]

45. Starkville, MS: 1982

Yes, you read that right, 1982. Until then the district was trying to satisfy the requirements of Brown by just integrating the faculty and by creative gerrymandering of the school district lines (and before you snort, I could point out similar creative gerrymander that continues farther north to this day).

I was born in 1976 and my Kindergarten class was segregated in the old-school "official" sense, not just the more modern sense.

[quaker bill]

46. Glenridge Middle

1966.

The school that was bussed in was Winter Park Middle. The first year was a bit rough, over crowding was a problem, it was FL and the schools were not air conditioned, it was August....

[Thirties Child]

48. 1956 North Texas State College (now UNT)