~Please Note~ |
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ALL Vanderbilt University Virtual School video conferences are scheduled on
CENTRAL time and are for Published Date(s) and Time(s) ONLY.
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Breaking the Color Barrier
Step back in time before the mid-1950's in the United States . Experience through this videoconference the amazing, historic, and terrifying time when schools for African American children were described as "equal" with those schools of white children. . . .but they were NOT. Think about what it would have felt like to be an African American student in an American school in the 1950's. . . think about being a student who was intelligent, hard-working, and African American. Think what it was like to have good teachers in your all-African American school but nothing else quite as good as in the white students' schools. Schools were often freezing in the winter. School books were old and worn and often “passed down” to the African American schools when the white schools discarded their books. Lab equipment was outdated or non-existent.
Life in America in the 1950’s and much of the 1960’s was segregation. It was two worlds that were afraid of each other. There were separate schools for blacks and whites, separate restaurants, separate hotels, separate drinking fountains and separate baseball teams. Life was unkind to black people who tried to bring those worlds together. It could be hateful.
On May 17, 1954, the United States Supreme Court ruled that separate public schools were illegal and the lives of African American students changed forever! In the case of Brown v. Board of Education (1954), Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote "We conclude that the doctrine of “separate but equal” has no place." Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that African Americans were "fighting for generations not yet born" when they participated in marches demanding the rights of African-American children to get the same education as white children.
Discussion in this videoconference will include many areas where the color barrier was broken or moved during this time of cultural transition in the United States . Join Nashville Vice-Mayor Howard Gentry as he shares stories of his life growing up in a much different Nashville than exists today. As an African-American child, he was not allowed to enter many of the places that are now Nashville landmarks: Elliston Place Soda Shop, the first Krystal restaurant downtown, and even Centennial Park . But Gentry heeded the words of his father (a Tennessee State University legend head coach of football and Athletics Director). . . . . . that ONE day, things for African Americans would eventually be better. Today Howard Gentry serves as the first African-American ever elected Vice Mayor in Nashville , Tennessee and is currently seeking election as Nashville Mayor in the August, 2007 election. His election as Vice Mayor was evidence that qualified African Americans can be elected to major leadership positions regardless of race, gender or background, and that qualified African-Americans can depend on citywide voting support as well as votes from the African American community.
Website Questions/Comments
Contact Virtual School Webmaster, Mike Majett
Email: mike.majett@Vanderbilt.edu
Phone: (615) 343-1018 IP:129.59.139.23
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