The children were a different matter. Some were nice and accepting. Some, carrying the prejudices of their families, were openly hostile. Others were nice to me at school, but if I saw them in town with their family they would be cold and noncommunicative. They knew their relatives would disapprove if they were friendly to me. This was all a valuable lesson, at a young age, about the way race works.
This past October, I had the surreal experience of attending the ceremonial opening of Annette Gordon-Reed Elementary School with members of my family and friends, some of my parents’ friends and some of my high-school classmates in attendance. I arrived to find a beautiful new school building for around 600 students, pre-K through sixth grade, in an area of Texas whose population is exploding. I was given a tour of the building by several very self-assured sixth-graders.
Several years after I entered Anderson, the Supreme Court struck down freedom of choice plans like Conroe’s, and the schools in our town were totally desegregated. Booker T. Washington was no longer a Black-only school, and the name was changed to just Washington, apparently in deference to the unease of white parents who did not want their children going to a school named for a Black man, not even the “Wizard of Tuskegee.”During that era other customs fell.
Ok. However, let's remember to teach the kids how to read, write, and count.
Nice Story!