The Dark Underbelly of Reinhardt--Part 1

Reinhardt operated within a community that was deeply racist and sexist.

The racism is so “in your face” that it needs no argument, but I will provide a few vignettes:

In the middle 1950s, the A&P store in Casa View had a “colored only” water fountain.

When we boys at Reinhardt hit the restroom urinals (there were four) while changing class, everyone knew to avoid the second and third—“Boy, Girl, N*gg*r, Squirrel.” [More about sexism in “The Dark Underbelly of Reinhardt—Part 2.” I'll cover squirrels, that is, children with special needs, in Part 3.]


Boy's restroom across from gym. Taken June 11, 2007.

We would begin our neighborhood hide and seek game with

One potato, two potato, Three potato, four,
Five potato, six potato, Seven potato, more!
(Then the child would remove the fist on the word "more" and the game would begin again.)

but continued on with an

Eenie, meenie, meinie, moe
Catch a n*gg*r by the toe
If he hollers make him pay
Fifty dollars everyday
My mother told me to choose the very best one,
and you are not IT.

In the eighth grade, I had an old guy for American History. I don't remember his name, but he was very full of himself--bragged about being president of the Texas school history teachers and how distinguished he was. While we were studying the American West, he decided to allow a student to raise his hand and make a comment. The boy said his older brother was a graduate student in history and his brother had told him that the Indians had really got a raw deal and that much of what we were studying in our history books was inaccurate or incomplete. The old shitbag teacher responded with a very fierce shutdown, that that was very "dangerous" talk and was not going to be allowed in his classroom.

When was Bryan Adams finally forced to desegregate, under Federal court order? Was it the early 1970s? UNT has done a wonderful job in recent years of exploring its history of racism.

http://www.unt.edu/northtexan/archives/s04/history.htm

Someone ought to do the same thing regarding our little cluster of public schools in east Dallas.




PTA moms had nothing to do with the powerful forces
at work to desegregate, but they watched the news
closely. Photo taken June 11, 2007 at Reinhardt Library.