Just one more reason I love teaching on a college campus- amazing opportunities drop in my lap, like attending a lecture given by Civil Rights legend Dr. Terrence Roberts, who was one of the 9 brave students who desegregated the high schools in Little Rock, Arkansas. With an eloquent, engaging story-telling style, Roberts shared about his decision to volunteer as one of the 9, what he endured that year, and what lessons he learned from that experience and the life experiences that followed.
When the Little Rock school board asked for volunteers to desegregate the schools in 1957, initially 150 Black high school students indicated interest. As a result of parents' fears for their safety, threat of violence, and promises of job loss for family members, most of them withdrew, leaving only 9 brave students willing to attend the previously all white Central High School in Little Rock Arkansas.
I have seen pictures of those 9 entering the school the first day, seen the angry crowds held back by the National Guard. What I didn't know, though, is that Roberts, along with the other 8, was beat up at school every single day that year. He admitted that he learned to run very fast.
Many of my students were baffled about why he would continue to face that persecution day after day without retaliation. According to Roberts, he didn't know how historic his actions were, but he knew that he wanted an education and that they current system just wasn't right. "Race as we know it is an historical construct," he said, "but America is dedicated to segregation."
The experience increased his passion and drive to pursue an education, but what is especially amazing is that he did not come out of that year of high school with any desire for vengeance or a defeatist attitude. Although he also faced daily verbal abuse, he said that, "what others say or think about us is none of our business. I don't want to fitter away my life force on anger. If others know they can make you angry, they have control over you." Roberts instead has chosen to continue steadily, almost stubbornly, on the path that he desires, never allowing others to determine where or how far he will go.
His clear focus on his purpose in life is amazing. He said, more than once, "You have to decide at times in life the hill you're willing to die on and focus on that." If we allow ourselves to be distracted by skirmishes along the way, we will never make it to the top of the hill that really matters most to us.
His lessons were both for individuals and for our community at large. While he repeatedly admonished us all to take our education and lives into our own hands, he also recognized the role that our society plays in perpetuating hatred, anger, and violence.
"This country is in trouble because we are wasting energy maintaining the walls that surround us. The rhetoric is that we are dedicated to integration, but most people live mono-racial, mono-cultural lives."
Surely there are better places to spend our energy. Surely there are ways we could live our lives so that we leave this world a more beautiful place than we found it.
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