Wilmington, NC Teachers' Video - 1, 1990-1995
Loading the media player...
Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
- | [Annie Mae McMillian] Respect themselves first. | 0:07 |
And love themselves first. | 0:11 | |
If they love themselves, | 0:18 | |
and if they respect themselves, | 0:21 | |
they will love and respect others. | 0:22 | |
Those are two things that we need today. | 0:27 | |
In every facet of life, we need love and respect. | 0:32 | |
And then to be led to be concerned about our fellow man. | 0:39 | |
We need to really learn to live for others. | 0:44 | |
And let living for others be our motto. | 0:50 | |
The homeless person on the street, | 0:54 | |
we need to stop and help them. | 0:57 | |
There's so many things that young people can do. | 0:59 | |
And they want to do these things. | 1:04 | |
But we've got to bring them together | 1:07 | |
and channel their thoughts and their energies | 1:09 | |
into the right avenues and all of that. | 1:12 | |
They might prove to be productive. | 1:15 | |
Because in my book, everybody's somebody. | 1:18 | |
I don't care who you are, where you are. | 1:21 | |
Everybody is somebody. | 1:25 | |
The president of the United States, | 1:28 | |
a member of Congress, a policeman on the street, | 1:30 | |
the trash man, the homeless person, | 1:34 | |
the baby, | 1:38 | |
the person making a speech, the people on the television, | 1:40 | |
everybody. | 1:43 | |
And until we love and respect everybody, | 1:45 | |
we're not gonna make it. | 1:48 | |
That's what I try to teach. | 1:50 | |
And that's why I try to conduct myself | 1:53 | |
in a way that I can help somebody. | 1:55 | |
Until I help somebody, then I have lived in vain. | 1:59 | |
That's what it's all about, helping. | 2:04 | |
- | [Margaret Harris Evans] When I left Peabody School, | 2:07 |
I went to Williston Primary School, | 2:09 | |
and the first project I did there | 2:12 | |
was giving directions | 2:15 | |
and having the children locate places | 2:17 | |
and give directions themselves, | 2:20 | |
because when I was at Peabody, | 2:22 | |
it was a problem finding streets | 2:25 | |
over in that section of town. | 2:28 | |
I always lived on the south side of town, | 2:30 | |
and children on the south side of town | 2:33 | |
didn't go on the north side too frequently. | 2:36 | |
So I knew very little beyond Red Cross Street. | 2:39 | |
But when I got to Williston Primary, we had this project, | 2:43 | |
like locating the city hall. | 2:46 | |
Directing somebody to the post office, or things like that. | 2:50 | |
And the children enjoyed it. | 2:54 | |
Well I enjoyed it too, | 2:55 | |
because some places I didn't know about. | 2:57 | |
- | [Kate Marsh Moore] Out of, out of | 3:01 |
Years of teaching experience, 43 years. | 3:04 | |
28 of these years were taught at Blunt School. | 3:11 | |
Nine of these years were taught at Matthew Philips School. | 3:19 | |
And my most memorable experience whilst teaching | 3:30 | |
was the fact of the integration era. | 3:36 | |
I would like to say that if | 3:44 | |
parents, | 3:50 | |
teachers and children co-operate, | 3:53 | |
they will have a better learning situation, | 3:58 | |
and better learning experiences. | 4:05 | |
- | [Annie Lou Highsmith] My most memorable experience | 4:08 |
was when I was teaching | 4:11 | |
and a child, | 4:14 | |
who was a learner that couldn't grasp things too quickly, | 4:16 | |
and then I would try to present a skill to that individual, | 4:24 | |
and he would finally see that he understood, | 4:29 | |
and his eyes would lighten up, | 4:34 | |
and he would say "Oh, that's easy." | 4:36 | |
That was most rewarding to me in all situations. | 4:42 | |
And to all teachers, that is a rewarding dream, | 4:46 | |
to know that you have finally reached a person. | 4:50 | |
I have labeled myself as a dedicated teacher. | 4:55 | |
I've also labeled myself as a mother | 5:02 | |
to some of the children. | 5:05 | |
I have labeled myself as a lawyer. | 5:07 | |
I have labeled myself as a doctor. | 5:10 | |
And I could go on and on. | 5:14 | |
And friend, basically. | 5:16 | |
- | [Annie Gardner Burnett. Deceased] I came to Wilmington | 5:18 |
in 1940. | 5:20 | |
And my first job was at Williston Industrial High School. | 5:24 | |
I think the most memorable thing about the job was | 5:32 | |
that Black students had not had any business education | 5:37 | |
before that time. | 5:43 | |
I began teaching mathematics in the eighth grade. | 5:45 | |
The certification I received once my transcript was sent | 5:52 | |
from West Virginia State College | 5:55 | |
to the North Carolina State Board of Education. | 5:58 | |
They had qualified me to teach so many different subjects | 6:07 | |
because of my degree in Business Administration | 6:11 | |
that I was able to get a job | 6:14 | |
which I considered that was my field, | 6:16 | |
but I did want a job, so I took it. | 6:18 | |
I was there two years when they brought in | 6:23 | |
some typewriters they had purchased | 6:27 | |
from the government at one of the surplus sales | 6:30 | |
somewhere around Raleigh. | 6:35 | |
Of course, this made me very happy | 6:39 | |
because I was the only one there | 6:40 | |
who was qualified to teach typewriting. | 6:43 | |
Through Wachovia Bank, | 6:50 | |
I was able to place the first Black lady, | 6:51 | |
a student of Williston, in that bank, | 6:55 | |
and from then on, | 7:02 | |
until the time of integration, | 7:05 | |
Wachovia would only hire Black girls to work | 7:09 | |
if they were recommended by me. | 7:14 | |
Marie M. Tucker | My most memorable experience | 7:17 |
of teaching, | 7:20 | |
I was working with young children, | 7:21 | |
the beginner children, | 7:24 | |
and that work was just like, | 7:25 | |
you see a rose in the morning, a bud, | 7:28 | |
and in the afternoon, | 7:32 | |
that rose bud turned in to a beautiful rose. | 7:33 | |
That's what you get from little children | 7:38 | |
when they start developing, | 7:40 | |
and personally, I think integration hurt more. | 7:42 | |
Because | 7:51 | |
later in the years, | 7:54 | |
we needed more Black teachers into the schools, | 7:56 | |
and that's what we don't have now, | 8:01 | |
and it has hurt our children. | 8:03 | |
We were dedicated people, I was a dedicated person, | 8:07 | |
and I would walk into the class room for the first time. | 8:09 | |
I went into work | 8:13 | |
and not with one child, but with all of them. | 8:15 | |
I don't think that. | 8:18 | |
I don't know whether I was born a teacher, | 8:21 | |
but I do know this, I worked with children, | 8:25 | |
they loved me and I loved them. | 8:29 | |
And we got along beautifully. | 8:31 | |
Through the years. | 8:34 | |
And along with the parents. | 8:36 | |
I had beautiful parents, just like I had beautiful kids. | 8:39 | |
- | [Charles L. Bryant Jr.] Every time I taught, | 8:43 |
I attempted to live in such a way | 8:45 | |
that my life would be worthy of emulation, | 8:47 | |
so far as the students were concerned. | 8:50 | |
I was concerned about dress, | 8:53 | |
I was concerned about the way I performed. | 8:55 | |
And sometimes, | 8:58 | |
and of course my students would remind me of | 8:59 | |
a number of things I said, | 9:02 | |
and a number of demonstrations were made, | 9:04 | |
concerned the way they were tired | 9:07 | |
when they came to school. | 9:09 | |
I also tried to fix in their minds | 9:11 | |
the necessity of preparing themselves in this world. | 9:15 | |
Another feature about the matter of integration, | 9:21 | |
I think of course there were benefits to be derived | 9:23 | |
from integration. | 9:26 | |
I feel, of course, | 9:28 | |
that when the schools became desegregated, | 9:29 | |
the amount of interest that was manifested | 9:32 | |
during the time Williston was in operation | 9:34 | |
was not in the same effect. | 9:37 | |
The things I have reference to | 9:40 | |
during the times of commencement, | 9:41 | |
there was standing room only at Williston. | 9:43 | |
When it got mentioned of course | 9:47 | |
in the desegrated units occurred, | 9:49 | |
they found that many of our people were absent. | 9:51 | |
When you think in terms of the glee club, | 9:55 | |
under Miss Odell, and under Mr Thompson, | 9:57 | |
when performances were given by them, | 10:01 | |
there were quite a number of them, | 10:03 | |
the schools were all Black, | 10:04 | |
and all the members of course were Black. | 10:06 | |
In the White set up, | 10:08 | |
you had to pick to find you probably had | 10:10 | |
probably a sprinkling of our people, | 10:13 | |
and I wondered sometimes where all the talent | 10:16 | |
among Black people went, | 10:19 | |
because I felt, of course, we had it. | 10:21 | |
- | [Daisy Brown Bryant] Integration, it has done some good, | 10:24 |
but children are allowed to see things now, | 10:28 | |
and not just hear about them. | 10:33 | |
They are taking the places | 10:35 | |
where they experience different people | 10:37 | |
who are working in different occupations, | 10:39 | |
and develop them to decide | 10:42 | |
just what their life to be themselves and work for it. | 10:44 | |
And they have every opportunity, | 10:47 | |
so many opportunities open for them. | 10:50 | |
In the schools, they have so much more to work with. | 10:54 | |
And we had, before integration came in. | 10:57 | |
Certainly now, machines, visual aids and stuff, | 11:00 | |
enough to go around, | 11:06 | |
where we were short before, | 11:07 | |
sometimes we were not able to get it. | 11:08 | |
In this sense, integration is good, | 11:11 | |
because it has taught the children, | 11:15 | |
it teaches the children how to get along with each other, | 11:17 | |
regardless of race or color. | 11:20 | |
And doing this, it makes good citizens, | 11:23 | |
it will help to make good citizens when they grow up. | 11:26 | |
And it shows too, another thing, | 11:30 | |
seems like when integration came along, | 11:33 | |
then some new laws, | 11:36 | |
somebody came up with this idea that children have rights. | 11:37 | |
And seems like since they have these rights, | 11:41 | |
they have just gone to space, a lot of them. | 11:44 | |
They figured that they know everything, some of them, | 11:47 | |
and they won't listen to the parents, | 11:50 | |
and that's the reason that so many young kids today | 11:52 | |
are getting into trouble. | 11:56 | |
And another law that was passed, I'll mention, | 11:57 | |
that they're not supposed to be whipped in school. | 12:05 | |
Now when they're whipped, | 12:10 | |
they're just given a little brushing off | 12:15 | |
to let them know that there's certain things | 12:17 | |
that they're supposed to do. | 12:19 | |
Before integration, we taught them certain things | 12:21 | |
of how to respect, as I've mentioned before, | 12:25 | |
and to be honest, | 12:28 | |
and to respect authority, | 12:30 | |
such as laws and things of that type. | 12:32 | |
- | [Katherine McKenzie MacRae] Well I can't say that, | 12:37 |
it hurt, in a way, maybe it did hurt, | 12:40 | |
and in a way, it did help. | 12:42 | |
One way that I think that it hurt my race | 12:45 | |
is that I could not keep them at the school | 12:51 | |
and help them with the things that they needed help. | 12:56 | |
And they would come if they could, | 12:59 | |
but they had to ride the bus. | 13:01 | |
And they had to be on that bus to go home, | 13:04 | |
'cause they had no other way to go home, | 13:06 | |
and I couldn't take them home | 13:08 | |
if I had a car at that time, | 13:09 | |
I would have kept inviting who wanted to stay | 13:12 | |
and help them, | 13:15 | |
because I was in Williston. | 13:16 | |
Williston Junior High, that is. | 13:23 | |
I would stay at the school sometimes, | 13:25 | |
because I could walk home in five minutes myself, | 13:28 | |
and the children would stay, | 13:31 | |
some of those from well across town would stay, | 13:33 | |
and as long as I could give them, | 13:36 | |
they would stay and get help with math and science. | 13:40 | |
- | [Isabelle M. Dicks] There were a lot | 13:45 |
of little things that we didn't know. | 13:47 | |
And I tried to give them all of the things | 13:49 | |
that I felt that I had not had when I was coming along. | 13:52 | |
I felt that there were little things like table manners | 13:56 | |
that were not in a book. | 14:00 | |
There were other social graces | 14:02 | |
that I felt that they needed that were not given at home. | 14:05 | |
And there were study habits | 14:10 | |
that many of their homes did not provide, | 14:17 | |
and we provided that at school. | 14:19 | |
I hope that I instilled confidence. | 14:25 | |
I hope that I instilled in them to be better than good. | 14:28 | |
I hope that I made them feel | 14:34 | |
that they could compete with any group anywhere. | 14:37 | |
I tried to give them all of the things | 14:42 | |
that I felt that I needed. | 14:45 | |
I put myself in each person's place | 14:47 | |
and I tried to give them the things that I thought | 14:51 | |
that I needed. | 14:54 | |
- | [Lucille Franks Bess] I don't think | 14:57 |
that my students needed me | 14:59 | |
for anything else. | 15:00 | |
They had heard that I was a strong teacher. | 15:01 | |
I had taught some of the parents of the Black children. | 15:05 | |
And their parents had told them | 15:10 | |
"I want you to be a student of Mrs Bess." | 15:12 | |
And many times, there were little questions | 15:16 | |
about whether or not they were able | 15:20 | |
to come up to my expectations. | 15:24 | |
And they tried. | 15:27 | |
They went that 100th mile | 15:29 | |
to try to do what they thought I would want done. | 15:33 | |
Staying after school, washing boards, | 15:38 | |
bringing in extra material for the classes | 15:42 | |
and what have you. | 15:48 | |
- | [Ollie Mendenhall Telfair] Today | 15:51 |
there is a lack of commitment | 15:53 | |
on the part of parents with the school. | 15:56 | |
We used to have the PTA | 16:00 | |
and that was a motivating, a moving organization | 16:01 | |
that worked closely with the parents and the teachers. | 16:06 | |
And things got done that the school was with the teachers, | 16:10 | |
and the teachers were with the school. | 16:16 | |
And kids really performed. | 16:18 | |
Yeah, and the whole community, it seemed, | 16:23 | |
was behind the school, the teacher and the child. | 16:25 | |
If you did something wrong in school, | 16:29 | |
it would get back to the parents | 16:32 | |
and the parents would do something about it, | 16:33 | |
and you didn't commit that anymore, | 16:36 | |
because that child knew | 16:38 | |
that their parents would be after them. | 16:39 | |
And anyway. | 16:43 | |
Interviewer | Why did you think it was so good | 16:44 |
in the segregated schools? | 16:46 | |
- | [Louise Yeoman Gore] Well, I just think | 16:49 |
the teachers we had, | 16:51 | |
the co-operation of the parents, | 16:52 | |
and we were freer to teach the children | 16:55 | |
and to hold their interests. | 16:57 | |
While the other schools were, | 17:02 | |
they had their advantages and disadvantages. | 17:04 | |
Interviewer | What are some of the | 17:08 |
disadvantages in the White schools? | 17:10 | |
- | [Louise Yeoman Gore] Well, I don't think children | 17:13 |
got the attention | 17:13 | |
that they should've gotten. | 17:15 | |
They seemed to be disillusioned at times, | 17:17 | |
and they created a lot of problems. | 17:22 | |
They had a lot of drug problems, | 17:25 | |
a lot of discipline problems. | 17:26 | |
And that kind of stuff. | 17:29 | |
It kept the children from learning. | 17:31 | |
They didn't have anybody to push them. | 17:33 | |
- | [Gracie Nichols Foxworth] The girls and boys | 17:37 |
are so wonderful today. | 17:41 | |
And I feel that | 17:44 | |
we, the teachers in New Hanover Town | 17:47 | |
during the 40s and 50s and 60s, | 17:50 | |
worked to give all that we had. | 17:54 | |
Children are like the bank | 17:59 | |
in which we store faith in the future, | 18:03 | |
and all human law. | 18:08 | |
The ideas and ideals of our world. | 18:12 | |
In the bright wonder of an upturned face, | 18:17 | |
we see the whole hope of man's betterment. | 18:21 | |
Children are saving, but cannot be spent. | 18:26 | |
It is a joy, or it was a joy, | 18:33 | |
to hold the first graders' and second graders' hands, | 18:36 | |
and help them to unfold like a flower | 18:40 | |
at the end of the year. | 18:44 | |
And best of all, it was like this. | 18:47 | |
To give our children back again to life. | 18:51 | |
Grown up young men and young women. | 18:58 | |
- | [Julia Mack Bibbs] Having taught | 19:05 |
in New Hanover County around 20 some years, | 19:06 | |
during the time of segregation, | 19:10 | |
I found the teachers to be very co-operative. | 19:13 | |
I found them to share ideas with each other. | 19:17 | |
And I found most of all, the co-operation of the parents. | 19:22 | |
When you needed the parents, they were there. | 19:26 | |
When a child became a discipline problem, | 19:30 | |
the parents were there. | 19:33 | |
Today as I teach in an integrated situation, | 19:36 | |
or more or less I would say a desegregated situation, | 19:39 | |
I find that the parents are much younger | 19:43 | |
than the parents of years ago. | 19:45 | |
Therefore, the co-operation is not as strong as it was | 19:48 | |
in the late 50s and early 60s. | 19:55 | |
- | [Thelma Williams-Williams] I have two | 20:00 |
most memorable experiences. | 20:02 | |
One occurred when I was assigned a seventh grade class, | 20:06 | |
and then I realized I was the smallest person | 20:13 | |
in the class room. | 20:16 | |
The second occurred when I jumped in | 20:19 | |
to stop two of my boys from fighting | 20:23 | |
and I ended up in the hospital. | 20:27 | |
Now as an educator, | 20:30 | |
I saw my role as one of fostering self-esteem | 20:32 | |
and instilling a sense of accomplishment | 20:39 | |
in each of my students. | 20:44 | |
I assured them that God had given all of them talents | 20:47 | |
which they had to develop. | 20:51 | |
It was so that I had to encourage them | 20:55 | |
to work to their fullest potential | 21:00 | |
by telling them that nothing would be handed to them | 21:02 | |
on a silver platter. | 21:05 | |
Not only did I teach the three R's, | 21:08 | |
but I added two others. | 21:11 | |
Respect and responsibility. | 21:13 | |
To me, integration has helped, | 21:18 | |
in that it has shown the Caucasian people | 21:22 | |
that the Blacks are very intelligent, | 21:27 | |
and they can accomplish and outshine them in many areas. | 21:30 | |
Sara Lee White | I stayed at Gregory Elementary School | 21:38 |
for seven years. | 21:41 | |
And I worked five of them in the fourth grade. | 21:44 | |
And then I had the sixth grade | 21:52 | |
the next two years that I was there. | 21:55 | |
I loved my work very, very much while I was there. | 21:58 | |
And there was a lot of co-operation there, | 22:04 | |
and a lot of love, | 22:08 | |
because the teachers shared the information with me. | 22:11 | |
But I remember my principal saying | 22:17 | |
that we are not here to teach books. | 22:21 | |
We are here to teach children. | 22:24 | |
So my biggest interest then was to find out | 22:27 | |
where each child was at the time | 22:31 | |
and start from there. | 22:34 | |
- | [Marvin "Zip" Johnson] And I so much wanted my students | 22:36 |
to do better than I had done. | 22:40 | |
When I was in school, my teachers, | 22:44 | |
and I think that's one thing | 22:47 | |
we all should be so grateful for, | 22:49 | |
the teachers were more than just teachers. | 22:51 | |
They loved us, they pushed us, they cared about us, | 22:56 | |
and that's one thing that students don't have today | 23:00 | |
like we did then. | 23:05 | |
And we had brilliant teachers. | 23:06 | |
I remember Miss Annie King. | 23:08 | |
I came to her one morning and said, | 23:13 | |
"Look ma'am, I haven't memorized my sonnet." | 23:16 | |
And this was about 8:15 in the morning. | 23:20 | |
She says "Well I'm gonna call on you at the regular time | 23:23 | |
"and you better be ready when I call." | 23:27 | |
I had to rush out of that room there | 23:30 | |
and memorize that sonnet | 23:33 | |
that I should have done the night before, | 23:35 | |
but she was teaching me a great lesson, | 23:37 | |
that "Yeah, I like you as a son, | 23:39 | |
"but I'm not going to let you get away with it." | 23:41 | |
I remember Miss Mildred Washington telling me | 23:44 | |
at the end of one six week period, | 23:49 | |
"Look Marvin, your average for this six weeks is 84." | 23:52 | |
She was letting me know that look, | 23:59 | |
you haven't done the very best that you could do, | 24:02 | |
so you're gonna get a C. | 24:05 | |
Now I remember Miss Holmes, Elizabeth Holmes. | 24:09 | |
And pardon me, ma'am, I don't know your last name now, | 24:13 | |
because I understand you were just married | 24:16 | |
and I think it's Salter. | 24:20 | |
She pushed me and helped me. | 24:23 | |
And Miss Alice Loughton. | 24:27 | |
Miss Loughton did so much to encourage me. | 24:31 | |
And all of these people, and I can name many more, | 24:37 | |
we had real geniuses teaching us. | 24:40 | |
Miss Holmes, Miss King, Miss Catherine Robinson. | 24:43 | |
And I as an individual did not take advantage | 24:48 | |
of that situation on a positive side, the way that I should. | 24:53 | |
See, I left high school with barely a B average, | 25:00 | |
and when I got to college | 25:06 | |
and realized that I was paying my money then to be educated, | 25:09 | |
I remember my first biology test, I made 99 on it, | 25:13 | |
and everybody in the class was just looking to me then | 25:18 | |
to provide the leadership and knowledge in biology. | 25:22 | |
I made 90 something on my math exam, | 25:25 | |
and I looked at that and said "My God, | 25:27 | |
"Miss Holmes would be very proud." | 25:31 | |
And Mr. Tally, who was another excellent teacher. | 25:33 | |
So we had very talented people, | 25:37 | |
who themselves were deprived, | 25:40 | |
because they could've been outstanding professors | 25:43 | |
at any university, | 25:47 | |
if they had not had to carry the baggage of prejudice | 25:48 | |
and discrimination. | 25:52 | |
And it's everywhere, just like Linda, | 25:53 | |
you just noted that I'm the only Black man there | 25:56 | |
in a meeting now with | 26:00 | |
about 30 some business people from Dupont, | 26:02 | |
and it's that way all the time, | 26:06 | |
so we are still carrying baggage of discrimination | 26:07 | |
and deprivation. | 26:11 | |
So I wanted my students to really seize the moment. | 26:13 | |
To really fight to get everything | 26:19 | |
out of those class activities they could, | 26:23 | |
because I knew that as an individual, | 26:27 | |
I had not taken full advantage of them. | 26:29 | |
But I got enough, because my teachers were so good, | 26:32 | |
I got enough to be rather outstanding in college. | 26:36 | |
What could I have achieved had I been more attentive | 26:40 | |
in Miss Salters... | 26:45 | |
Ma'am, I keep wanting to call you Miss Holmes, | 26:48 | |
in that algebra class? | 26:51 | |
What could I have accomplished had I been | 26:54 | |
even more attentive in Miss Washington's English class? | 26:56 | |
And Miss King's English class? | 27:00 | |
And that's why I wanted my students | 27:02 | |
to be a better high school student than I was, | 27:05 | |
because I knew what was waiting for them on the outside, | 27:09 | |
in terms of prejudice and discrimination and so on. | 27:13 | |
You know, I wouldn't have even gotten to college | 27:17 | |
had it not been for Mr Washington. | 27:20 | |
He called me in his office at graduation time | 27:24 | |
and said "Look Marvin, I got an opportunity | 27:27 | |
"for you to go up to Lincoln." | 27:30 | |
And this is just another manifestation | 27:31 | |
of how our teachers went far beyond | 27:34 | |
just giving us information | 27:37 | |
and trying to get us to learn. | 27:39 | |
They cared about us. | 27:44 | |
They wanted us to be well disciplined. | 27:47 | |
They wanted us to try to use our talents to the utmost. | 27:51 | |
And this is the reason why I wanted my students | 27:57 | |
to really do better than I had done, | 28:01 | |
and I knew that many of them | 28:05 | |
had more innate ability than I had. | 28:07 | |
I'll never forget, one of my class mates at Williston, | 28:10 | |
Alonzo Austin, | 28:15 | |
he came from very impoverished circumstances, | 28:17 | |
but was so brilliant, | 28:21 | |
very outstanding in the class room, | 28:24 | |
even in high school. | 28:26 | |
I don't know whether Alonzo was able | 28:27 | |
to go to college or not, | 28:29 | |
but I know that he had the potential | 28:30 | |
of exceeding all of the rest of us, | 28:32 | |
and he did go because of his grasp | 28:35 | |
and his ability and the advantage that he took | 28:37 | |
of being a good student in high school, | 28:40 | |
so I just think I was just extremely blessed | 28:42 | |
and I feel like all of us who had an opportunity | 28:47 | |
to be students of Miss King, Miss Robinson, | 28:50 | |
Miss Holmes, Miss Payne, Miss Loughton, | 28:56 | |
Miss Williams, and I can go on and on. | 28:59 | |
And Miss Burnett, and many, many others. | 29:02 | |
You just don't have that quality here | 29:06 | |
of individual teaching today. | 29:09 | |
And in addition to just being teachers, | 29:12 | |
they loved us, they cared for us, | 29:15 | |
and they kept pushing us. | 29:17 | |
I made D's. | 29:19 | |
I didn't have a good six weeks | 29:21 | |
if I came up with a C in algebra. | 29:23 | |
But it wasn't because | 29:26 | |
I did not have the resources from my teachers. | 29:32 | |
I had a teacher who was a genius. | 29:35 | |
Many of them were. | 29:38 | |
And if I had taken full advantage of that, | 29:39 | |
I could've gone so much further than I went, | 29:42 | |
and that's what I wanted to... | 29:45 | |
Now I did so much better in college, | 29:46 | |
but even at making D's and C's in math, | 29:49 | |
my background at Williston was so strong | 29:53 | |
that I was able to go and handle math | 29:57 | |
with relative ease in college, | 30:01 | |
because of the outstanding performance of my teachers | 30:03 | |
and because they cared so much. | 30:07 | |
Well, in the 30s and 40s, | 30:11 | |
there was a famous monkey in the zoo. | 30:16 | |
And his name was Zip, | 30:20 | |
and the encyclopedias will confirm that for you. | 30:23 | |
And when I was born, my mother's cousins | 30:28 | |
and other relatives said that I was such an ugly baby, | 30:32 | |
and so they tagged the nickname on me of Zip. | 30:36 | |
And it's been with me all my life. | 30:40 | |
One thing I know that any time I hear that name, | 30:43 | |
I know that somebody who really knows me, | 30:46 | |
and who really has been close to me | 30:49 | |
in the early years of my life. | 30:51 | |
And there are a lot of people in Wilmington | 30:54 | |
who know nothing, | 30:56 | |
don't even know that my name is Marvin, they know just Zip. | 30:57 | |
(upbeat music) | 31:06 | |
Richard Irving | What you have just heard | 31:18 |
are statements expressing each former educator's ideas | 31:20 | |
about what it meant to have the charge | 31:24 | |
of educating Colored children | 31:27 | |
in the first 68 years of this century | 31:29 | |
in the segregated schools of New Hanover County | 31:32 | |
in the State of North Carolina. | 31:35 | |
Realizing that education was at best | 31:38 | |
done with inadequate equipment, | 31:42 | |
supplies and furnishings, | 31:44 | |
it is noteworthy that the process was highly successful | 31:46 | |
because of the commitment, determination, concern | 31:50 | |
and love which flowed from the teachers | 31:54 | |
to each student in their classes. | 31:56 | |
What is quite remarkable is | 31:59 | |
that with all the baggage educators had to bring | 32:01 | |
with them to their jobs, | 32:03 | |
they had a tremendous grasp of their fields | 32:05 | |
and an ability to make learning interestingly attractive, | 32:08 | |
so that even the most compromised student | 32:13 | |
wanted to reach his potential. | 32:16 | |
Doing so was an understood given in the school arena | 32:23 | |
during those years. | 32:27 | |
The purpose of this film is not to depress nor to incite, | 32:30 | |
it is simply to tell our story. | 32:34 | |
It would be a mistake to fail to share with others | 32:36 | |
the history of the Colored school child's education | 32:39 | |
in this southern town. | 32:42 | |
It is not unique to New Hanover County. | 32:45 | |
What happened here happened all over the south | 32:47 | |
in segregated schools. | 32:50 | |
Let us never forget that no progress comes without a price, | 32:52 | |
and sometimes, that price is high. | 32:57 | |
Whether our gains surpass our losses | 33:00 | |
can only be judged by the place it takes in our history. | 33:03 | |
(upbeat music continues) | 33:17 | |
Diane Emerson | The love and pride | 33:25 |
we all share for Williston | 33:26 | |
is best expressed in this poem, | 33:29 | |
"Two Loves Have I We," | 33:32 | |
written by Mrs Lucy Davies, a local educator | 33:35 | |
and former Willistonian. | 33:39 | |
"Two loves have I we, | 33:43 | |
but they are not quite the same. | 33:46 | |
They have a commonality | 33:49 | |
which is the dearest and sweetest name. | 33:51 | |
They have the glorious name of Williston, | 33:55 | |
which was the greatest school under the sun. | 33:58 | |
The school that disciplined our minds, | 34:02 | |
yet provided time for fun. | 34:05 | |
The first Williston, Tenth and Ann, | 34:09 | |
stands in all its glory, | 34:11 | |
and has made history within its walls. | 34:14 | |
The students were taught the value of an education, | 34:18 | |
in the class rooms and from posters in the halls. | 34:22 | |
Williston had some of the finest teachers | 34:26 | |
that could be found anywhere in our land. | 34:30 | |
They taught with pride and dignity, | 34:33 | |
and at a level where students could understand. | 34:36 | |
Their technology consisted of a blackboard | 34:40 | |
with the use of a chart or two. | 34:44 | |
They encouraged the students to listen | 34:47 | |
as they explained how and what to do. | 34:50 | |
The six point lesson plan was their innovation, | 34:54 | |
for they always started with a review. | 34:58 | |
They were masters of having materials ready, | 35:02 | |
because this they required their students to do. | 35:06 | |
The teachers' input was magical, | 35:10 | |
for they made learning worth your while. | 35:14 | |
Students were eager every morning | 35:17 | |
to walk for knowledge that extra mile. | 35:20 | |
The students worked and learned independently | 35:24 | |
with all of the lattice linked within. | 35:28 | |
Ability grouping was not a priority, | 35:31 | |
and being slow was not the greatest of sin. | 35:35 | |
School spirit was always at a high, | 35:39 | |
for we were proud of the maroon and gold. | 35:43 | |
Students were taught to bring the honors, | 35:47 | |
because they had a reputation to uphold." | 35:50 | |
Richard Irving | A second Williston came into existence, | 35:56 |
and it was a replica of number one. | 36:00 | |
The external features were different, | 36:04 | |
but internally, no other changes had been done. | 36:08 | |
The students kept the honors coming, | 36:13 | |
from all parts of the state. | 36:16 | |
It was known that the schools were unequal, | 36:19 | |
but the students continued to accelerate. | 36:22 | |
Williston was at its pinnacle when integration came. | 36:27 | |
The closing of our alma mater jolted us | 36:31 | |
like a bolt of lightning can jolt a man. | 36:35 | |
Our hearts were truly saddened | 36:39 | |
when Williston was closed that day. | 36:41 | |
We knew it was no longer in existence, | 36:44 | |
for it had been taken away. | 36:48 | |
Many years have since passed, | 36:51 | |
but the memories are still in the heart. | 36:54 | |
Perhaps we could have retained it, | 36:58 | |
if we had been persistent from the start. | 37:00 | |
Gone are the memorabilia | 37:05 | |
that made our hearts shout with glee. | 37:08 | |
Gone is a part of Wilmington's Black history | 37:12 | |
that we enjoyed so immensely. | 37:17 | |
The Williston Tenth and Ann is in its final stage, | 37:24 | |
as stated by the powers to be, | 37:29 | |
they said it is no longer safe | 37:32 | |
for the children who attended as Gregory. | 37:35 | |
Stand up sons and daughters of Williston | 37:39 | |
and ask as very last plea, | 37:43 | |
ask that a special landmark be erected | 37:48 | |
so that Williston will always be in our memory. | 37:51 | |
Two loves have I, we, | 37:57 | |
and their names are Williston. | 38:00 | |
These are our alma maters | 38:04 | |
and the greatest schools under the sun. | 38:07 | |
(upbeat music continues) [The Williston Commemorative Video] | 38:19 | |
(upbeat music continues) | 38:33 | |
[Narrated By Diane Emerson. Richard Irving] | 38:35 | |
[Video By Tom Atwood] | 38:44 | |
(upbeat music continues) | 38:46 | |
(no audio) | 39:09 | |
Meteorologist | Oklahoma, | 39:22 |
there is a watch for severe thunderstorms. | 39:23 |
Item Info
The preservation of the Duke University Libraries Digital Collections and the Duke Digital Repository programs are supported in part by the Lowell and Eileen Aptman Digital Preservation Fund