Preparing for Mandatory Integration
Preparing for Mandatory Integration
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Mandatory integration was finally to become a reality. The school division began to plan for how integration would unfold. A key concern for Black teachers was whether their jobs were in jeopardy. In the years preceding integration, white administrators in the WJCC School Division had made it clear that integration could threaten Black teachers' employment. Rev. Junius H. Moody and Brady Graham, both teachers at the Black-only Bruton Heights School, recalled attending a staff meeting in the years before integration and hearing Superintendent Rawls Byrd make this announcement to the Black teaching staff:
Brady Graham
Teacher
Rev. Junius H. Moody
Teacher
"I can visualize... white and colored children in class together, but I cannot visualize a colored teacher teaching them."
Sources: Rev. Junius H. Moody. circa 1995. Oral History. Grassroots Theatre Project, S5B1F41. William & Mary Special Collections Research Center.; McKinnon, Ryan. 2016. Former students and teachers want Rawls Byrd Elementary renamed. Daily Press. March 29.
As teacher Brady Graham explained:
“That was the assumption – that if they integrated, all the black teachers would be fired.”
Madeline Gee, another teacher in the segregated schools recalls a similar sentiment expressed by the superintendent.
Film Credit: Media Collections, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Source: McKinnon, Ryan. 2016. Former students and teachers want Rawls Byrd Elementary renamed. Daily Press. March 29.
In the spring of 1968, the School Board began drawing attendance zones for the integrated schools and assigning students - and teachers - to schools. Black teachers felt compelled to defend themselves as they faced challenges to their expertise and suggestions that they would favor Black students over white students.
"I have taught a 100 percent white class but I did not see color, I saw students...If I am not competent to teach all children then I should not be teaching any children."
a Black teacher, March 8, 1968, The Virginia Gazette
Principal Caleb Brown, Berkeley Junior High
Source: The Beehive, James Blair High School Yearbook, 1968-69, William & Mary Special Collections Research Center
"I would like to let parents know that students who come to this school whether they are white or Negro need not worry because teachers will view them not according to color but as students."
Principal Caleb Brown, Berkeley High School, March 8, 1968, The Virginia Gazette
Black parents also feared what integration would mean for their children, as parent Katherine Curtis explains. Black parents worried about the loss of Black teachers who knew and understood their children and were part of the Black community. Yet, in public debates the competence of white teachers was not questioned as it was for Black teachers.
Film Credit: Media Collections, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Once school assignments were finalized, a transition committee was established in the hopes of creating processes to smoothly integrate the Black and white high schools. Dianne Lee was a graduating senior at the Black-only Berkeley High School and was asked to serve on the transition committee with students and staff from both the Black and white high schools. She described her experience in this way:
Dianne Gwendolyn Lee
Courtesy: University of Maryland Medical System
"I felt good in that I was a representative for my brothers who were coming behind me, and I felt this transition had to be as positive and least stressful as can be, not just for my brothers, but for everyone. We did all get together - Black and white - and say, we need to make a difference."
"But the animosity was still there. The white students felt like, “you are coming to our school, we’re going to do it our way.” One white student, for example, was adamant about the football team, and he said, “you guys are coming to OUR school!” I felt like slapping him. We did our best to ease the transition, but, afterwards, I was so happy that I wasn’t going to be in that school and experience the turmoil that it would be."
The sentiment that "you are coming to our school" was reinforced by actions that suggested the history and traditions of the Black-only Bruton Heights and Berkeley Schools no longer mattered. Both parent Dennis Gardner and teacher Phyllis Crudup recalled that, when it was time to integrate, records of the achievements and history of the Black schools were erased - in some cases, literally tossed in the trash.
Source: Phyllis Crudup. August 2, 2023. The Village Initiative Oral History Collection.
Source: Dennis Gardner. 2007. Oral History. Williamsburg Documentary Project, W&M Special Collections Research Center.
Banner image: Teachers at Berkeley High School (clockwise from top L), Caleb Brown, Shade Palmer, Raymond Freed, and Phyllis Crudup. Collage of photos created by Lanni Brown
Sources: The Tarantula, Berkeley High School Yearbook, 1966-67, 1967-68, courtesy of Troy D. Roots
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