8 Quotes by Vanessa Siddle Walker

Their strong appearances of disinterest were unnerving in contrast with the old CCTS yearbook pictures of African American children involved in debating, drama, literacy clubs, and so forth.

Rather than being add-ons to the curriculum, these activities were manifestations of the professional beliefs of principal and teachers about what had to be central to the curriculum if the needs of children were to be met.

I am indebted to the readers who provided consultation for the University of North Carolina Press – Jim Anderson, Marvin Lazerson, and George Noblit.

My relationship to the place cannot be overplayed, however.

It seemed impossible, so I began seeking information. I talked with my mother. I went to visit my former first grade teacher. I started looking at a few yearbooks and reading old newspapers. I talked informally with some CCTS graduates. The comments were remarkably similar.

I internalized the negative messages of the poor segregated schooling of African American children and never thought to compare those messages with the shadowy experiences I remembered.3.

The comments I heard from members of the African American community in informal settings went something like the following: “Mr. Dillard worked so hard for that school”; “It was such a good school”; “I sure do hate to think about them closing it.” I was stunned to hear the fondness people expressed as they recalled an era twenty years past.

As such, it neither contradicts the important political reasons for waging a legal war on segregation nor mitigates current studies that substantiate the sociological reasons for continued maintenance of desegregated environments.