Hilliard Caldwell - Dedication of teachers and his grades (clip)

Interviewer: Tell me more about the Black schools that you grew up in, not just when you were in high school but even before that. What were they like? What did that mean for you?

Hilliard Caldwell: It meant that… I have to admit that we had darn good teachers. They cared. They were genuine. They went beyond the six hours a day in the school. If they felt they needed to go into the home at night they would do so. They would not only appear at school Monday through Friday, but they would see a parent on Sunday at Church. They’d say, “Mrs. Caldwell, I want to tell you that your son Hilliard is doing an excellent job, and we are just so proud of him.” Or, “Hilliard, did he tell you what he did? I had to punish him.” Well, now you didn’t want to hear that kind of comment because back in those days, when your mom got home, she’d say “Well Mrs. McDougle told me that you were ugly this week and she told you to tell me, and you didn’t tell me. Why didn’t you tell me?” “Well Mom, I forgot.” “You didn’t forget it.” Well, that was the end of that conversation. You were sent outside to get a switch.

Interviewer: Uh-huh.

Hilliard Caldwell: Once you got a couple of switches, by God, you’d go back to school, and you abided by the rules and regulations. I said, “Lord knows I don’t want my mama to get on me,” and I’ll tell you, I had a good… they gave a grade back in those days on our report cards and, you won’t believe this, but I have all my records from grades three through twelve.

Interviewer: You do?

Hilliard Caldwell: About 12 years ago, I was appointed coordinator of student records and had access to records way back. And we spent about two summers putting everything on microfilm and so we got to my class, I took out my records and saved them and I show my son my records sometimes now. And conduct, I was good. There was a category called conduct and there was a category called citizenship, and my conduct was good. I carried myself because I didn’t want to get a whupping at home and my conduct was As and Bs. They graded you on how you carried yourself, were you showing courtesy to others, were you respectful to the teacher.

Interviewer: Do they have a category of that type now in the school?

Hilliard Caldwell: It’s listed. It might even be one under citizenship. I believe there is but I’m not familiar with the up-to-date register of students today. That citizenship and conduct was an important part of your training back in those days too. We studied the flag and the constitution. We learned allegiance to the flag. We said it every morning. We said a Bible verse every morning. That was a good start for us to say a Bible verse in the morning. It was the beginning of the day and teachers back in those days felt that you should start the day off with the Allegiance to the Country and then with something related to prayer and it was a Bible verse. I remember repeating Bible verses for years and there were times when the teacher would say, “Tomorrow morning, I want each of you coming in with a new Bible verse.” And you’d go home and look in the Bible and find the shortest one you could find, and you had to tell where it came from. They were good days.