Janice Mack Guess and her two sisters bravely integrated Durham’s Brogden Middle School shortly after James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman were tortured and murdered by Klansmen in Neshoba County, Mississippi. They were among the 16 Black students who walked into what felt like enemy territory after the turbulent summer of 1964.
Guess’s father, Rev.
Benjamin Alexander Mack, was the circuit minister for the African Methodist
Episcopal Zion Central Conference before being called to serve as pastor of
Durham’s Morehead Avenue Baptist Church in 1967. Her father participated in
protest at Durham’s Howard Johnson’s Hotel. Guess remembers witnessing more
than 500 Black people congregate on the parking lot of the hotel, Sunday after
Sunday, for months of a different type of worship service.
Being called to do God’s
work was deeply embedded into Guess’s understanding as the child of a Black
religious leader, but she was too young to fully understand what it meant to participate
in a history making decision. Her mother and father were parents to two sets of
twins. Guess entered the 7th grade with Joyce, her twin sister and Jennifer,
her older sister who was held back a grade.
Guess recounts her story
in Little Colored Girls Want to Wear Pearls Too, her memoir published in
2013.
Guess says she didn’t
think much about entering middle school until that hot summer. With everything
in the news, agitation and fear mounted leading up to the first day of school.
“We could have used more
training about what we had to face because we had never been around white
children,” Guess said. “We stayed in our
communities and even though we lived in Walltown and just a block from were
white people lived, and a block from Duke University women's campus, we didn't
know what to expect.”
Guess says the Black
students were placed in an environment without the support of Black people.
“They did not prepare us with any kind of
orientation about what to expect,” Guess said. “You know they wouldn't do that
nowadays. They dropped us off at the school and people turned around and looked
at us and we heard people say, ‘what them niggers doing here?’ Even the
teachers had looks on their faces when they went to lunch while white students
threw food down the table in the cafeteria.”
Guess says the gym teacher
ordered Black students to walk around the track while white students played
volleyball or other activities. The only Black people she saw was the janitor
and the people who worked in the cafeteria. She says things got better after a
few weeks, but there was a feeling that never went away.
“It was like we were
invisible,” Guess says. “People call you nigger. They whisper things. It was a
lot to deal with. We were 12-years old. We
just thought it was a way of life. They weren't kind at all. I wondered what made people so mean. Everywhere
you look you just got rolling eyes.”
She says the Black
students believed the way they were treated was a normal way of life. Black
students were taught lessons on how to behave in a white world, how to act
while in your parent’s house and what is required to remain safe. Black
students weren’t given any counter instructions aimed at helping them adjust in
a hostile environment.
The experience taught an
unintended and troubling lesson.
“I’ve never trusted white
people. Even though every job I’ve had was opening doors for other Black people,”
Guess said. “Our generation opened a lot of doors, but I don’t trust white
people. I’ve never had a white friend. I’ve never allowed a white person in my
house.”
Guess retired after
decades of service at Burroughs Welcome, a pharmaceutical company that merged
with Glaxo in 1995. She says her work as a trailblazer involved looking out for
and protecting other Black people. She says the vice president of Burroughs
Welcome often recognized her job performance.
“The vice president of
Burroughs Welcome was very good to me. I was a good employee,” Guess said. “I think
I'd say that it's living with the consequences of being treated the way you
were treated. When you have a child. When
you hurt children - children live with pain of being hurt by white people.”
The parents of Stanley
Vickers fought two years for him to attend Chapel Hill-Carrboro white public
schools. In 1959, when Vickers was 10-years old, he was denied admission
because he’s Black. On August 4, 1961, Judge Edwin Stanley, in an appeal led by
future Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Thurgood Marshall, overturned the
school board’s ruling.
During the August 10 Chapel
Hill-Carrboro Public Schools board meeting, current board members honored the
60th anniversary of Vickers entering Chapel Hill High School.
Vickers shared his recollection of those first days in an integrated school.
“There were people who were curious about
me more than anything, and then I had people who were just openly hostile,”
Vickers said.” I had lunch by myself, I had gym by myself. To some, I’m an
anomaly, to others I am a threat, to others I am something less than human.”
Vickers and Guess hold internal scars
related to leaving the security of an all-Black school. They are trailblazers in a community quest in
promoting equality and equity in public school education. They were supported
by parents and faithful Black people. They were missionaries set into heated
battles to undo the grip of white supremacy.
They are symbols of Black pride and
courage. More than that, they were children thrust into the fight about grown folks’
business.
More than 60 years has passed since Black
children entered school systems managed by white people. Many Black children did
well academically. Many graduated from integrated schools before becoming
successful in assimilated work settings. We measure the success of integration based
on lists of who’s who and what they have achieved.
What about the emotions of the children?
How are they doing?
Rev-elution offers independent, local Black
journalism for residents in Durham, North Carolina and reflections of faith in
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