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5 A BLACK CHILD BLACK CHILD’S S BURDEN URDEN Busing to Achieve Racial Balance Racial Balance “Must we have our children standing before us all of the time?” This May 15, 1971, article in the local black newspaper asked readers to reassess why children were on the front line of the freedom struggle in Grand Rapids. The author warned, “If you as parents don’t make up a plan of action your children will take action—either for better or worst [sic].” Indeed it was becoming quite apparent that black student direct-action protest had taken center stage since the South High walkout.1 The 1966 school walkout began to reflect national trends toward a more expressive form of black freedom activity, but it by no means marked an end to the pursuits of an older generation of black activists. Instead it began a shift whereby a younger generation of black protestors moved forward to carry the torch. The mustache saga heightened awareness of a rising youthful black population more open about expressing frustration over the prejudices that impacted their entire community. However that conflict only scratched the surface of black frustration. Discontent over segregated schools, deteriorating neighborhoods, housing discrimination, declining economic opportunity, and broken promises boiled to a new level by the mid-1960s, but did it represent enough to ignite citywide rebellion in Grand Rapids? “Or Does It Explode?” On Sunday, February 14, 1960, famed poet Langston Hughes came to Grand Rapids to lecture in a public forum held at Fountain Street Baptist Church. Known for his numerous short stories and plays, Hughes inspired generations of blacks with his ability to make visible the beauty, dignity, and frustration A BLACK CHILD’S BURDEN 115 of the black community.2 Two members of the Grand Rapids Study Club (GRSC), Ethel Coe and Louise Baldwin, served as cochairwomen for the GRSCsponsored event.3 The GRSC was responsible for bringing a wide range of notable black guests, such as the Fisk Jubilee Singers, Louis Lomax, and Etta Moten, to widen the scope of black cultural contributions.4 Among the scores of renowned black visitors Coe had welcomed to the city, she held a special affinity for the self-proclaimed “literary sharecropper.” In particular, Hughes’s 1951 poem “Harlem” had direct relevance to the decade of educational, economic, and political indifference of the city’s progressives and the rising transition in black resistance. In “Harlem,” Hughes asks, “Does [a dream deferred] dry up like a raisin in the sun?” Taking the title of her play from Hughes’s poem “Harlem,” Lorraine Hansberry wrote A Raisin in the Sun, which debuted on Broadway in 1959. Coe felt so strongly that the poetic message of “Harlem” revealed the black community’s exasperation that she decided to audition for the Grand Rapids Civic Theater’s run of the play.5 According to the Grand Rapids Press, A Raisin in the Sun told the story of the “angers and frustrations of a young Negro in his fight for a decent job and decent housing in the world of prejudiced whites.” Coe identified with the play’s seriousness of purpose and hoped it would generate greater awareness of the shifting trends in the city. The play captured the city’s imperfections and the growing discontent of a frustrated black community living the day-to-day heartache of a “dream deferred.” “The ‘message’ cannot be ignored,” Coe stated. The local production of the play, which featured all nonprofessionals , was sponsored by the GRSC and opened February 1, 1966.6 But by 1966, the play appeared as a mild protest on urban racial problems. By the mid-1960s, grievances over second-class conditions had exploded in inner cities across the country. During the summers of 1965, 1966, and 1967, racial uprisings broke out from Los Angeles to Detroit to Chicago. Although still relevant, the social impact of the play was giving way to a new resolve. In February 1966, Coe admitted she was “out of step with the young leaders of today.” She recalled, “One Negro here called us old-timers.” However, Coe correctly noted, “We were active long before these young ones came up and I feel we plowed the field so the progress that has been made would grow.” In fact, Coe came to Grand Rapids when she was ten years old. In 1919, she “was refused service in an ice cream parlor,” but her uncle, Stanley Barnett, decided to take the case to court. “We...

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