Sunday, July 3, 2011

Two Schools 1966

My brother and I attended different high schools as the redistricting occurred in Baltimore County.  We had two very different experiences.  My school included few African American children who lived in the same area, contiguous to our neighborhood.  Everyone knew one another...and got along on a surface level.  My brother's school transferred students from Sollers Point High School at its closing.  I remember my brother talking about the "kids on the buses.  No one will let them off.  Everyone is throwing rocks at the windows and I don't care if they ever get off."  I suppose that he joined in the heinous activity but I'd like to think he didn't.  I always wonder how the kids on the buses were feeling.  What fear and hatred was in their hearts? How can that behavior be explained or condoned or accepted? 
            Please note the link Desgregation in Maryland Counties 1966 to a report on desegregation in Maryland Schools in 1966.  The language speaks to continued discrimination, as African American principals are not rehired in the new configuration. It gives a feel for the underlying attitude of benign
compliance during that era.
          Brown v Board of Ed was in 1954 and Maryland continued to have separate schools until 1966.  I remember seeing Sollers Point HS.  It was in disrepair and one cannot imagine learning in that environment. This disparity continues in the Cleveland School system where West side/East side schools has different access to materials and programs. This seems to be a theme of inner city schools nationwide.  The inequities of funding for all schools needs to be addressed.
          It has taken many years to get to where we are today.  I know it is not perfect and probably never will be perfect - but I also look at all the improvements in our society.  Things are better. 


1 comment:

  1. Thank you for sharing the experiences that you and your brother had attending different high schools. You are right in saying that things are not perfect, but we have made improvements as a society. We can only hope that the inequities in funding improves in the next forty years.

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