David Caldwell Jr. - Discrimination in Integrated Schools (clip)

Blanche Brown (BB): Now, you were going to school where, for the majority of the time? Like did you go to Lincoln, or did you-?

David Caldwell Jr. (DC): No, I went to Chapel Hill High School.

BB: Chapel Hill High School, okay. Because you were about, like thirteen when integration was fully phased in?

DC: Yeah, yeah I was, I was one of those where, at the end, at the end of everything, I went through the sixth grade at Northside and I went to Guy B. Phillips at the time when it was integrated. I was one of the few Blacks there, and then the next year at Guy B. Phillips, Lincoln was closed down and the schools were consolidated. And then when we left–we were there for seventh, eighth and ninth grade–and then went to Chapel Hill High School.

BB: And what was that like?

DC: Which part? Phillips was rough [chuckles.] It was very rough. Nobody bit their tongue, they said what was on their mind. And this is, you know, students and teachers.

BB: Oh, wow.

DC: So it was a lot to have to deal with, yeah. I remember coming home wondering what I did wrong. Why am I treated like this, what did I do wrong, what am I being punished for, type of deal, because it was really hard to, you know, just coming from the schools, the Black schools. We’re already a year behind, for most of us, the average student was a year behind. And you could probably look at those that were making As and Bs at Northside, a majority of those ended up making Bs and Cs when they went to Phillips and the other schools with the integration. You know, of course we got the old books, we got the old buses, all those things. Leaving there, I remember when the school changed and all of the kids from Lincoln came and all my friends from Northside were there, and I didn't feel alone, but the tension of integration was still there. It was still there. Even at that time.

BB: Even in that community?

DC: Mhm.

BB: Interesting.