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13. Moving On Things don’t just happen, you have to make them happen. J. A. De Laine Once the 1949–50 school year started at Scott’s Branch, it went on without interruption—except for the continual change of principals. A couple of days into the term, my mother found the combined responsibility of teaching sixth grade and running the school too much. She asked for assistance and Mis’ Amy was assigned to help her. Shortly thereafter a new principal was hired. He stayed perhaps two weeks before leaving in disgust. Mis’ Amy was then asked to act as principal, with Mother as her assistant. Then another man was hired as principal. He resigned even before he could be introduced to the staff. The female duo of acting principals once more took the reins. Next in the procession of principals was an alcoholic who kept the position almost as long as anyone else did that school year, probably being too drunk to realize there were problems. In keeping with the custom of the day, the school board was determined the principal should be a man. Desperate, they turned to the existing staff. All the male teachers had been fired before the school year began, and only one man, a fresh college graduate, had been hired in September. In early February the twenty-four-year-old Albert Fuller—with four months’ teaching experience— became the sixth principal of Scott’s Branch during that school year. On one occasion the young principal sent a child home as a disciplinary measure . But before classes were dismissed that day, his superiors had reversed the decision. The Committee on Action protested the administration’s lack of support for him, and my father, on behalf of the parents, wrote a letter to the superintendent and the trustees. It read in part: As a result of the raggedy way the school ran last term, the children lack the proper respect, [and] without respect there is no way of avoiding further dissatisfaction and unrest. [How] do you think the discipline of the school can be carried out when you make a figurehead of your choice as a principal? We realize that the present principal is young and inexperienced but you were the ones that put all of the last six principals there. If we [had Outcomes, 1951–1955 130 been] permitted to help you, this embarrassing situation would never have arisen. You should sustain the principal in his administrative acts when he is right. Even if he is wrong, we think he should be sustained at least one day for the good of future discipline. The parents did what they could to help the inexperienced young man, and he managed to complete the school year as principal. When the year ended, his contract as agriculture teacher was renewed. However, as Daddy had foretold, Mother’s contract was not. Something else happened that my father had never considered. His sisters and niece were also dropped from their teaching jobs in School District 22. Even the wife of my uncle Lewis, who taught in another Clarendon district, lost her teaching job. The authorities were applying pressure in every way they could to destroy the leader of the rebellion. Rev. De Laine’s transfer to Lake City took place slightly more than a month before the school year came to a close. A former pastor of St. James, my father’s new church, recommended that he contact Luther Green, a church steward who owned a funeral home. My father immediately wrote to him. Green’s Funeral Home and an adjacent barbershop turned out to be centers for black news in Lake City. There one could get information about voting, school irregularities, domestic disputes, or any other local issues that involved black people. Daddy’s letter to the churchman immediately became a public relations document, heralding his arrival. The whole family (except Jay, who was away working for the summer) drove to Lake City with Rev. De Laine on his initial Sunday at St. James. The first church member to introduce himself to my father was Webb Eaddy, a church officer who lived next door to the parsonage. The church was packed, crowded with the devout, the curiosity seekers, the church opposers, and its lukewarm members. The news of his arrival had been broadcast very effectively. Although we were not going to change our place of residence until August, my father immediately set about establishing himself as a presence in...

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