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85 Williams is a member of the African Historical and Genealogical Society, where the philosophy of African American as a part of American society is espoused. Williams , who also happens to be an author and well-known resource of San Antonio’s African American history, is passionate about wanting others to know about black people and their history. Williams arrived at St. Philip’s just as San Antonio was going through a political upheaval involving the integration of San Antonio College and St. Philip’s. Harry Burns, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and sponsor of the Youth Council of that group, was recruiting students to protest the lack of admittance of black students to SAC. He interviewed Williams and her mother about the possibility of her helping to integrate SAC, but because of her uneasiness with the situation, her mother, a single parent, shy about Williams’s participation and not quite certain of what Burns told her, directed her daughter to St. Philip’s. Williams entered St. Philip’s College with no real means of paying for her education until Stonewall Jackson Davis found her and offered a scholarship of about $ to help pay her tuition. To earn the remainder that she needed, she worked as his student assistant, worked for Lois White in English, for her chemistry teacher, Roger Lee, and also worked for Dr. Norris. She still remembers classes under Bill Hudgins, her health and P. E. teacher. In fact, her memories of St. Philip’s are More than anything else, change was a mark of the s, not only at St. Philip’s, but also across the nation. It was a time when the United States was in great turmoil, particularly in the South, because of the Supreme Court mandate in Brown v. Board of Education to integrate the races. Brown v. Board of Education was the  US Supreme Court decision that overturned the “separate but equal” doctrine that had made racial segregation legal in public facilities since . But while other cities were reeling with discontent, San Antonio experienced a minimum of the discord evident on many campuses and in other large cities. In this chapter , we meet some of the students who attended St. Philip’s immediately before and during the time of integration. Students from the 1950s Jeralyne Castleberry Williams Jeralyne Williams, from East Texas, a place she described as, “not too far from Houston,” came to San Antonio in the early s. She entered St. Philip’s in  and graduated in . Williams’s hobby, interest, and passion is cultural awareness of the African American heritage of black Americans. “We really are a part of the fabric of the country and the city and I am deeply interested in the African American part in this country. We’re not just a footnote in somebody’s textbook; there is a story to be told about San Antonio and its African American heritage,” she said.  Oral History Interviews, 1950s St. Philip’s was the school, I guess you would say, of default and one of the best things that ever happened to me. To go to St. Philip’s College was the thing to do. It was a sound decision. I can’t say enough about that. It was a place, a beginning point; it was a society on campus. You went to school there and spent the whole day. 86 • Chapter 14 made, for there he met Everett Turbon, William (Bill) Hudgins, T. R. Williams, and others who were successful and were great role models. Byrd adopted the attitude that if they could do it, he could do it too. When he finished St. Philip’s, wanting to stay in San Antonio, he applied to St. Mary’s University. His plan was to attend medical school and become a doctor, and while he considered St. Mary’s an OK school, it did not have a premed program. In addition, he learned that the same instructor taught all the biology classes. After one year, he transferred to Prairie View in order to take advantage of more variety in instructors. Many of his friends were there and Prairie View had the good reputation of sending their students on to medical or graduate school. At Prairie View, which he described as another great move, he met professors with PhDs, other very important people, and as a result, he had a wonderful experience. At the time, John Murphy, later to become president of...

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