Picture taken by R. Brown at Panama City Beach, FL
In the year 1970, the “black” and “white” schools of Randolph County integrated. The conclusion of that school year marked three memorable moments for me. First, I had to leave the nurturing instruction, provided by my favorite teacher of all times, Ms. Dorothy Marlin. Secondly, I was going from the third to the fourth grade and last but not least, 1970 was the last year that my class would be populated by black kids only. The white kids were coming to our school in the fall.
The state of Georgia and Randolph County were not exactly “chomping at the bit” to integrate their schools. The Supreme Court had actually declared that “Separate but Equal” was a “flawed standard” and called for desegregation with the “Brown-v-The Board of Education” case in 1954. Then the Supreme Court had to further prod…
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This is one of my favorite songs. Seems we are having a hard time believing it still true today. Interestingly, I played and sang this song with a group of residents at a local rest home this morning. They love it and the stroke patients sing right along even though they can barely speak. Loved your article.
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Thanks, that’s amazing about you playing and singing this song. It does appear that the ideals mentioned in it, seem foreign now days.
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I believe they has some of the same struggles back then that we do today.
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For sure!
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Ron, I was sadden to learn that your first experience with diversity was one of an imposed feeling of inferiorly. Even now, in a more informed society, a student attending a mostly white university for the first time may experience some of what you experienced. One would hope that we could learn to live respectfully together and benefit from one another’s wisdom and experience instead of having to experience the things that were demanded of you back then.
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I don’t believe that the youth of today would stand for what I went through. The parents would probably raise cane also. I do seem to remember that some of the older students marched in protest.
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This is not to thextreme of your case, Ron, but according to a 2013 Association for the Study of Higher Education paper, which conducted focus groups with graduate students at seven universities, found that students of color endures bias treatment. A black student studying computer science, said her professor referred to her as “one of you.” She wanted to know what he meant by “one of you.”
When I was in graduate school in 2001, one of my professors said black people are constantly late because they’re on “CP” time, colored people time.
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