I live in a small town outside of Annapolis, MD. Everyday I get up, shower, eat, and then go to school. At school I have normal classes where there are people of multiple races, Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, Asians, and people from the Middle-East. The teachers treat everyone the same, as one person. But, this is now.
In the 1960’s and 1970’s, Blacks and Whites were separated in many things as you know. Blacks had to sit in the back of the bus; they had different bathrooms, water fountains, restaurant entrances, basically whatever White people, had the Blacks had worse. In the South, Blacks were persecuted, lynched, beaten and even shot. I knew that Maryland was technically a Southern State, but I had no idea that the county I live in, Anne Arundel County, had segregated schools until the mid 1970’s.
All of the Black students had to go to what is now Bates Middle School, next to the Maryland Hall in Annapolis. All means all. Black students from South County and Glen Burnie had to go to the Bates School which is about 10.61 miles away from Lothian, Maryland. The school there had all Black teachers, all Black staff, and all Black Students. The bathrooms had to have been a mess, the water fountains probably didn’t work, and of course there was no air-conditioning. But hey, Martin Luther King Jr. had all of those marches in the South; that had to have changed some things; right? I mean, the Civil rights Act of 1964 was in effect, the schools had to listen to the Federal Government. After what happened in Arkansas, the President had to take action in making the Governor integrate the schools. Anne Arundel County must have soon followed. But how much tension do you think was released when the Blacks had to go the same schools as the Whites?