To the editor:
Our family would like to thank Brown County School Superintendent Laura Hammack for addressing the racism, racial discrimination, bigotry and hate issues that have prevailed in the Brown County school system and the local Brown County Community since our family moved to the county in the late 1940s, and continue to this day.
As an African-American (people of color) family, we applaud your actions. The current opposition (for bringing this sensitive issue out of the closet), many who oppose are descendants of the community members, teachers and school administrators who discriminated against our family. Racism, hate, bigotry and discrimination all are a system of beliefs, ingrained and handed down from generation to generation. Yes, there is much racism in Brown County. Such beliefs have been prevalent in our schools, community, courts and business long enough.
When my two older siblings and I first attended the junior high and high school, my brothers were told by teacher(s) in the high school that “they would never graduate from BCHS,” and neither did. The high school would not acknowledge the 12th-grade status of the oldest; the school placed my two siblings in 11th-grade classes. Needless to say, they returned to Indianapolis to finish school. My younger sister and I were not given that option to go back to Indianapolis schools. Thus, the story being, to this day I cannot say that I am a proud graduate of BCHS. My sister, Karen, will not step foot in this county due to racist trauma. She is not a proud graduate of BCHS.
The racism and racist treatment I endured is painful to recount — and yes, not only the students, but teachers and administration were on board, as well as many in the community. There were teachers who promoted and encouraged racism. Yes, I hated them for it, but I knew that I had to shut it out and focus on scoring high on “their” test. Those same teachers held the “key” to me graduating. My only saving grace was my intellectual aptitude. Yes, in classes, on buses and as I walked down the hallways (“the gauntlet”), I was pelted with “spit-balls,” paper wads, shelled corn (anything they could throw), tripped, hit, kicked, etc., and a barrage of every racial slur imaginable, all while many teachers stood by their room doors. Some laughed, others turned a blind eye. No one was ever reprimanded for such actions or for condoning.
I graduated mid-term — I had just turned 17 — and enrolled in IU, so happy to get out of BCHS. I tried to prepare my younger sister for the racism that she would encounter. I said: “Sit up next to the teacher’s desk, so when the onslaught of ‘spit-balls’ are hurled, some will hit the teacher. Sit right behind the bus driver. …” I did not prepare her for some racist students, school staff/administrators, or teacher(s). One teacher assigned the class to draw pictures of black monkeys and apes with tails, and write Karen’s name on the drawings, and then hung all these pictures around the room for Karen to see. That incident was very hurtful, traumatizing to Karen, and something I could not imagine a Brown County High School teacher doing. I felt like a failure; I had not prepared Karen for that. Yet, we preserved, and both graduated from Brown County High School and IU. The stories go on and on.
What our family would like to say is, kudos to you, Mrs. Hammack. Stay strong against such opposition, and keep up the good work!
Dr. J. Watson, Brown County
