School Integration “Saved” Me But At What Cost

I was part of the great “school integration experiment”

As I follow the current proposals for school closures, placing police in schools, teacher shortages and other tragedies surrounding Rochester City School District (RCSD) I cannot help but think about my past connection with the district. And the choices my parents made for me to have access to “quality” education.

My journey through RCSD began with my entry into the schooling system via Virgil I. Grissom School #7. As a December 1 baby, my birthday missed the cutoff. I didn’t start school until I was closer to being six. A few weeks into kindergarten and I was “skipped” to the first grade.

I was a proud student of School #7 right through 5th grade. That year I can remember how excited I was to have my favorite cousin join the school. I spent the year daydreaming about how cool it would be at the top of the school hierarchy; a 6th grader! As my fifth grade year progressed, I made plans with friends about how fun 6th grade would be. Looking ahead, I wondered what middle school I would attend.

The Urban Suburban Program

Little did I know that the final weeks of my 5th grade year would be my last. When the last day of school rolled around I had no clue that I would never return to School #7. At the end of summer I learned that my parents had enrolled me in the Urban Suburban Program (US). A decision made with no input from me. I would spend my remaining grade school career as a student of the Brockport Central School District. Upon learning this information, I remember becoming devastated.

I had so many questions. So many fears. What would this new school be like? Why couldn’t I finish my time at School #7. I was upset at the loss of all my friends. I had so much unfinished business to attend to. A unrequited crush that was simply “stolen” from me. I had no choice or say in the matter. This was the first time I can remember feeling like the course of my life was changing. I had absolutely no control.

“This was the first time I can remember feeling like the course of my life was changing and I had absolutely no control”

What was the emotional and physical price that I a Black student paid to be part of the great “school integration experiment.” This legacy of busing Black and Brown students from predominately Black schools in “urban” centers to all white schools began in 1954 after the passing of Brown vs Board of Education. Fast forward to 1995/1996 and I was part of this legacy by way of Urban Suburban Inter-district Transfer Program.

The program was founded in 1964 to “voluntarily decrease racial isolation, deconcentrate poverty and enhance opportunities for students in the Rochester City School District and in the suburban districts of the Greater Rochester Area.”

 

For me the racism was more covert

Overall I can say that my experience as being one of very few Black students attending A.D. Oliver Middle School and then Brockport High School was not in any way as shocking as my young mind had thought it would be. Most of my middle school fears never materialized as I learned that in Brockport 6th grade was classified as middle school and so everyone was “new” to the school. This fact made my migration and assimilation a little easier.

Throughout the years I cannot say that I personally experienced any traumatic or explicit instances of racism.  That’s not to say that I didn’t hear about these instances. The “urban suburban kids” quickly became the moniker and when racist incidents did occur, the news spread fast. Little was ever done when these did happen.  For me the racism was more covert. Less overt. There was a general air and tone that us “city kids” were being “saved” and that the school was doing us a favor by allowing us to be there. “Count your blessings cause it could always be worse, you could be going to a city school.” Of course this was never said but it was certainly felt.

 

It was not my home, nor was it my community

What I might not have paid in racist remarks or incidents I did pay in other ways. From the beginning my school commute time tripled. Right from the beginning I had to learn a new schedule and routine. Waking up early is an understatement. That first year I remember my bus came at 6:30 am. This meant that I had to wake up at latest 5:45 am. To this day, I hate early morning commitments.

Integration may have given me a “better” higher quality education but it certainly took away my sense of belonging and community. Remember, I was bused all the way from the westside of Rochester to Brockport. It was a long commute. A lot of time every day traveling on a bus. A bus with 100% Black children to a mostly white town and school. Brockport was not my home, nor was it my community.

My parents back then only had one car and my mother was a homemaker and full-time mom. I was taught that after-school was never an option. How would I get home? This meant for me that sports, extracurricular activities, anything that happened in Brockport was out of the question. My mother was very protective and the idea of taking the RTS bus from Brockport to the city was simply not an option. I rarely had the change to do anything after school.

This included going to friends houses, parties, sleepovers. In fact, I never visited anyone from my school ever in Brockport. I can remember the few times I did have school projects that required out of school work, really the one time; I arranged that my friends come to my house in the city. It wasn’t until my junior, maybe senior, year that I was given the freedom to stay after school. By then the thrill was gone.

 

Would I want my children to attend RCSD?

Do I have regrets? It is hard to say. I feel that my parents did what they felt was best for me and eventually my siblings who were also enrolled in the program and attended Penfield Schools. As I look at the issues and problems that continue to plague the city I cannot say if now I would make a different choice. Would I want my children to attend RCSD? To see the same struggles and problems in 2021 that the district has dealt with since before my time is harrowing and embarrassing in more ways than one.

To see the current superintendent, Leslie Myers Small, propose closing and combining schools (including School #7) makes me sad. I know what it’s like to lose the only community you know. The bonds and connections that are broken when young children are moved from one school community to another. The impact is and harm can be irreparable. This I know from first hand experience.

I was given access to education and opportunities that I probably would not have had if I did stay with RCSD. But I also believe that due to who my parents were and how engaged they were in my education that I would have thrived no matter where I went to school. I was a good student and good at assimilating and moving through the schooling system. Brockport did not teach me how to do that.

 

I lost a community

What I do know is that I did lose many things. I lost a community, a sense of belonging, a sense of self and I became a minority where I was once a majority. Moving to a space of being one of very few Black faces in a sea of “white skin.” This became my norm and I learned how to move through and “fit in” mostly white spaces. I truly had no other choice. Perhaps all of this history is the reason why I do the work I do now. I am not sure I regret anything that has happened so far in my life. I do believe that every experience shapes and leads you to where you are in this moment so I can’t say that I would necessarily change anything about my educational experience.

What I can say is that the data does not support the big experiment of school integration that the supreme court ruled upon. It did give some Black and brown children access to an improved education but the segregation was so baked into housing policy, law, and culture that many, many Black children remained in separate and unequal schools with lead in their water, old textbooks and teachers that did not see them as fully human. Desegregation did nothing to address the Jim Crow laws and culture of race based segregation that prevailed in the north and south. Let us not forget that many white parents fought vehemently against school integration. They rallied, protested, jeered, spit, fumed and made their racism and disdain for the change in law very clear. Sadly, many still do.

 

Schools are still segregated

The inequity in education remains and despite the mission of programs like urban suburban, schools are more segregated now than they were in 1955. Urban Suburban has failed to make a dent in institutional transformation or change. The program works only for a small percentage of a very curated and “privileged” few. It has done nothing to make quality education the standard for all Black and Brown children and most recently with the latest bus shortage there has been talk of ending this program as well.  I like so many Black children taught in predominately white schools by all white teachers did not get to see myself reflected in the curriculum taught or around me in the physical space that I  occupied. We were the gifted, the excellent and the saved.

 

Many questions remain. Why did and why do we think that Black children can only excel when positioned close to whiteness? Why does our urban district continue to fail Black and brown students to this day? Integration supposedly saved me and maybe it did, but at what cost? I am still grappling with and trying to figure out the cost of school integration on my personhood to this day.

 

“Integration supposedly saved me and maybe it did, but at what cost”

Resources

1. What Led to Desegregation Busing—And Did It Work?
2. BROWN V. BOARD: Timeline of School Integration in the U.S.
3. Why did the busing crisis in Rochester schools get so bad? What we know now
4. The History of Project U-S: 50th Year Anniversary 

About Calvin Eaton