Randolph’s Legacy

To the editor:

Jeff Wick’s article (FCR 9-11-26) about Randolph School had a little bit of everything - living together as a community, government and history. The Texas Historical Commission marker is appropriate to document the history of Randolph School and what it stands for. The marker should protect it from being torn down in the future.

Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and President Lyndon Johnson signed it on July 2, 1964. This was the beginning of real desegregation in public schools, even though, in 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in the case of Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education that racially segregated schools were unconstitutional. It literally took an act of Congress to make the states in the South finally desegregate public schools.

In the summer of 1965, I remember my parents telling me that when I started school in September, that I would be going to junior high school at Randolph School with black kids. My folks didn’t seem to be worried about desegregation so I wasn’t either. I think that the adults just wanted it to work and the kids really didn’t think about it much. Parents set the example.

It did work. It was the law of the land. The LGISD school board (white men) and our parents (white and black) were people who had lived through the Great Depression and World War II. They had seen poverty and hardship up close and knew that government could bring people together for the common good and get them through tough times if everybody cooperated and worked at it. The U.S. military had already been integrated in July of 1948, when President Harry Truman signed an Executive Order requiring that to be done.

I don’t recall any problems between white and black kids in junior high or high school in those early years of integration. We had teachers (white and black) and school administrators who cared about all of us but who were strict disciplinarians. The kids were respectful of the teachers. We all behaved and we learned.

When I got to high school, I had Lorenza Crosby, Jr. as a teacher in “ag class.” Mr. Crosby was one of those teachers you never forget. He taught us how to determine the best mix for cattle feed, do small engine repair and welding, build a solid work bench and a lot of other things to carry with us through life. He made us laugh, told us stories and helped us to enjoy learning.

It seems that up until fairly recently, public schools and public school teachers, like the military and our military leaders, were respected - they delivered and the politicians mostly left them alone and let them do their jobs. Now that has all become “politicized.” It’s hard to tell nowadays if the state and federal governments are helping or hurting public education.

The U.S. Department of Education (established by Congress in 1980) has been largely dismantled in the last year or so. The State of Texas is taking control of public schools away from locally elected school boards due to “low scores on state mandated tests,” subsidizing private schools with $1 billion of public money for “school vouchers” and wanting to know what books are on library shelves of public schools.

Sixty years ago, people maybe didn’t agree on everything, but the mindset seemed more to be that everybody knew that they had to come together and work together to make society better for everyone, not just the rich and powerful. Now it seems it’s “Our way or the highway.” It was politics then. It’s politics now.

Hopefully, the legacy and lesson of Randolph School is really, as Mr. Crosby said, “Stay in the game. There is an opportunity for a better world.”