A stark and sad reminder of the days of segregation, published five months and one day after I was born. 16 years later, I would enjoy one of my best games ever as a high school football player (albeit JV that year). In a game our team won in Fayetteville NC my favorite pass receiver was Eart Joyner .. one of the small first group of African-American kids admitted to Fike HS that fall and the best I had ever teamed with. I think of him over and over again .. but haven’t seen or heard of him since that one year. My snapshot memory of the day besides his nimbly catching my passes and our shared sense of accomplishment was a compliment as the game ended and both teams meandered about .. still on the field. It came from one of the opposing team’s linebackers .. a sizable Lumbee Indian kid, who wanted us to know that we had done well ..
It was the Fall of 1965 in Wilson as the entire country was still grapling with how to comply with the 1954 US Supreme Court’s decision to desegregate public schools that the SCHOOL CHOICE FORM was offered to us who had just completed the 7th grade at predominately black schools.
I was one of those students who filled out the form and went to Coon Jr. High School , a predominately white school, for 2 years in the 8th and 9th, then subsequently went to Fike High from which I graduated, with honors, in 1970.
Yes, that “small first group of African American kids” (around maybe 12 of us) entered Fike , a white public school then, in the Fall of 1967, and included me , Thelma, Diane, Sam, and Carlester, just to name a few, who presevered through Fike until graduation.
Many lessons learned from the texts and also of human interactions.
A stark and sad reminder of the days of segregation, published five months and one day after I was born. 16 years later, I would enjoy one of my best games ever as a high school football player (albeit JV that year). In a game our team won in Fayetteville NC my favorite pass receiver was Eart Joyner .. one of the small first group of African-American kids admitted to Fike HS that fall and the best I had ever teamed with. I think of him over and over again .. but haven’t seen or heard of him since that one year. My snapshot memory of the day besides his nimbly catching my passes and our shared sense of accomplishment was a compliment as the game ended and both teams meandered about .. still on the field. It came from one of the opposing team’s linebackers .. a sizable Lumbee Indian kid, who wanted us to know that we had done well ..
It was the Fall of 1965 in Wilson as the entire country was still grapling with how to comply with the 1954 US Supreme Court’s decision to desegregate public schools that the SCHOOL CHOICE FORM was offered to us who had just completed the 7th grade at predominately black schools.
I was one of those students who filled out the form and went to Coon Jr. High School , a predominately white school, for 2 years in the 8th and 9th, then subsequently went to Fike High from which I graduated, with honors, in 1970.
Yes, that “small first group of African American kids” (around maybe 12 of us) entered Fike , a white public school then, in the Fall of 1967, and included me , Thelma, Diane, Sam, and Carlester, just to name a few, who presevered through Fike until graduation.
Many lessons learned from the texts and also of human interactions.