'I Refused to Allow Them to Win'

LaVon W. Bracy | Orlando, Florida

In 1964, 10 years after the Supreme Court desegregated the nation's schools, all the schools in Gainesville, Florida, where I lived, were still segregated. Blacks attended Lincoln High, whites attended Gainesville High. My father, the Rev. Thomas A. Wright, president of the local NAACP, filed suit against the Alachua County School Board and won.

He then went door to door asking black parents to register their children at the all-white schools. Parents overwhelmingly felt it was too dangerous. By the end of the summer, he had found two black volunteers, one each for the sophomore and junior classes, but no one for the senior class at Gainesville High. At night, I could not sleep. I could only see my dad's disappointed face each time I closed my eyes. One morning, I rushed to see Dad, greeting him with, "Here I am, send me. I'll go to the white school."

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yes, I must promote the cause. I must sacrifice my senior year for the cause. I must, I must," I said.

"One morning, I rushed to see Dad, greeting him with, 'Here I am, send me. I'll go to the white school.'"

On that first day, Dad drove me to school followed by a Gainesville police car. I received stares, and was called all kinds of nigger. No one spoke to me. No one sat near me. I could expect each day to have some white male or female spit on me and call me nigger. I began to hate. The thought of looking at someone with white skin made me sick.

After about a month at the school, a group of white boys jumped me and beat me bloody. No one offered any assistance. The principal said, "How do I know that you did not come to school bloody from your home? I did not see anyone mistreat you."

I stayed home for three days, pondering what to do. I refused to allow them to win. I returned. The year was long, silent, unhappy. The scars are still there. In 1965 I became the first black student to graduate from Gainesville High.