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MA: And then you moved around after that as well, right? You moved...

HC: Well, it was an interesting thing, though, because, see, that, I was the first non-white to be teaching in that school. But part of that system had, had a black school on the other side of the tracks, and so because of Brown vs. Board of Education, then the schools had to be integrated. And it was interesting that by my teaching over in the white school, I think that helped to make it easier for the black teachers to come in. Because I heard some people saying, behind my back, "Well, we have Mrs. Christ," I was assuming that was to verify that they were already integrated. But, but then, but then that also meant that the housing, the... what do you call it? Public housing project that was two blocks away from us, and therefore about four blocks away from the school, would be sending their black kids. Or would be integrated, which meant that black kids would be coming to the white school as well.

MA: And so were you there at the school when everything became...

HC: Uh-huh, integrated.

MA: Integrated. And what was that like?

HC: And so eventually -- it was, it was no big deal, it was fine. But the teachers were striking for higher pay, and so I, after that, then I was sent to, to the black school to teach, which meant it was all black children and no white children, because there were no white children living in that area. It was not surprising there were no white children in the school. And it was interesting that one of the first classes I had, one of the little girls, one of the little girls said, "Well, I don't have to mind you 'cause you don't even look like my mother." And I thought, yeah, I said, "Well, but I'm your teacher, so that's what, that's why you have to mind me." And evidently her mother verified that because she never said that again, and none of the other kids did, either. And so, so that the black school was integrated with white teachers and me, and the white school was integrated with black teachers, and that seemed to work out all right.

MA: I see. So that's how they, they did that.

HC: Uh-huh. Yeah, they had very fine teachers in the black school, wonderful teachers, and I think it was a good thing for the Madison school system to integrate.

MA: Was there resistance by the people in either, either town?

HC: Oh, sure. Oh sure, both sides, both sides, yeah. And it's, it's not surprising, because it was all over, all over, although we didn't have any riots or didn't have any bad... what do I want to say? Folks saying bad things in the newspapers and things like that. Although when there, there was an upheaval at the high school, the news showed a young person that had blood on herself, but then it was later revealed that she had bloodied herself just to be put on the news. And it wasn't a, wasn't nearly as big a riot, riot as the news wanted to make it, and was no, and you know, so that the high school did have some commotion, and evidently there were police who were at the high school helping. But then that was all over, wherever there were integrated high schools that was happening, so it was no big deal for Madison. Eventually, there was a call to have more, more places for junior high school students, and integrating the junior high school, because the building was too small and there were more kids coming up because of the baby boomers. And so eventually they did have to build another junior high school, which was then integrated. And it was, it may have, there may have been difficulties, but it wasn't difficulties that were mayhem, it was difficulties that were eventually worked out to the point where folks would try to be understanding and try to be willing to be forgiving and try to learn to live together, which has to happen anyway.

MA: Right, so it sounds like in that case, people learned to work together and sort of, yeah, work through that.

HC: Yeah, and the teachers -- at least I didn't experience any teachers who were partial to one race or the other, and you had to prove yourself in the classroom. It wasn't like, "Just because I'm here, I'm to get good grades." Everybody had to earn their way in school, as far as I was concerned. And if you didn't, didn't do your work, you didn't get the grades. And I felt that was pretty important in first grade, in fact, the first class I taught I said, "The test to me would be when you finish high school as a twelfth grader, that you finish, and that you're able, you feel like you could contribute to the school as well as to your community after high school." I don't know, I couldn't follow that through because we moved, and I had hoped to do some graduate work in that area, but that never came through. So I don't know whatever happened to that group of kids; they had a lot of potential, lot of potential.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Topaz Museum. All Rights Reserved.