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BY: So you were in college, you graduated with art education. What did you do after college?

SM: I taught in the public schools for two years, and then I went back to grad school, I wanted to learn more about filmmaking, so I could present things that were not stereotypical and that were more inclusive to the students, I always intended to go back and teach. But the timing was wrong, it was when Boeing had that big slump and they were laying off teachers right and left, and I couldn't get back into the system. So I ended up staying on the UW campus working as a student activities advisor, and then the director of the Ethnic Cultural Center on campus. So I never went back to public school teaching.

BY: And you told me earlier an interesting story about trying to get a job as a teacher, that there was a school that you really wanted to teach. Could you share that story?

SM: Oh, sure. So when I graduated in 1968, the recruiters from the school districts would all come to campus, and so you had appointments right on campus. And I interviewed with a bunch of different school districts, Hawaii, sort of a fantasy thing, all over the Puget Sound area. But I really wanted to teach art at Garfield High School. Garfield had a tremendous arts program at that time. I had met one of their teachers who tipped me off that another teacher was retiring. And so I was all set to apply for that, and I got through all the interview process and everything, and I got called to the district office to sign my contract. And I was meeting with the deputy superintendent. At that time, they had two deputy superintendents, one for the north and one for the south, i.e. all the people of color were in the south. Anyway, he was, congratulations, the document was sitting right in front of me and everything. And he said, "But we're not going to assign you to Garfield." And I must have had a pitiful look on my face. So he explained that there was nothing in my background that said I could handle "six-foot tall Negro boys," and so they were not going to put me into that situation at Garfield. And I was so freaked out that I couldn't say anything. I just got up -- without signing the document -- I just got up and walked out. And when I got to the car, I just sat there shaking at what had happened. But that's how I ended up in the Renton School District instead.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2023 Densho. All Rights Reserved.