Students learn African-American history from panel

East Windsor Township Councilman Walter Daniels and high school business teacher Elaine Martin were among those to speak at HHS in honor of Black History Month.

By: David Pescatore
   HIGHTSTOWN — Hightstown High School students Wednesday learned a different kind of local history during a panel discussion in honor of Black History Month, featuring teachers and an East Windsor Township Council member recounting their experiences with the civil rights movement.
   "There was segregation right here in Hightstown," said African-American business teacher Elaine Martin.
   She went on to tell the students about having to sit in special areas of the segregated movie theater and being forbidden from using the town bowling alley and pool.
   "There was an ice cream parlor where we could buy ice cream," Ms. Martin said. "But, we could not sit down and eat it there."
   She said that she thought it was just normal to get food from the back of a restaurant, for there to be places where she just could not go.
   "I’m told now that the Hightstown Country Club was the headquarters for the Ku Klux Klan. Back then, I just knew I couldn’t go there," Ms. Martin said.
   African-American English teacher Alice Burnett told of Nazi-like investigations from her days as a schoolgirl in Little Rock, Ark.
   "When I was 5 or 6, white men came to our school and they measured my lips. I thought nothing of it at the time. I guess I thought that it was just something that happened in school. I was probably part of some study about the physical characteristics of black people that was somehow supposed to relate to our abilities."
   Ms. Martin asked the audience, "What would you do if someone asked you to risk your life so that someone else could vote?"
   She said that she got on a plane to attend the march from Montgomery to Selma, Ala., without realizing what she was in for.
   "We got there and there were dogs and people with hoses and I realized that they could turn those hoses on me at any time."
   "The combination of fear and pride at that march made me grateful to be a part of something important," Ms. Martin said.
   African-American Councilman Walter Daniels told similar stories of segregation in the Washington, D.C., area, then talked about his first experience in an integrated restaurant.
   "I always liked this place called The Blue Mirror Restaurant because the outside looked like a blue mirror, but I knew that I couldn’t eat there. Well, my mother took me there after President Truman integrated D.C. during his last week in office. I sat down and had a turkey club and to this day, it is my favorite sandwich."
   Ms. Burnett described her experience as an 18-year-old Head Start teacher in Arkansas. She said it was the first time that most of the children had been exposed to other races.
   "The white children wanted to bathe me. The black children were amazed at the texture of the white children’s hair.
   Mr. Daniels said, "The goal of the civil rights movement was to create an opportune society for all citizens."
   He went on to describe various laws enacted during the 1960s, but said he was most pleased when his "10-year-old daughter could not understand the concept of not being able to eat somewhere because of her color."
   Mr. Daniels said the most important lesson to be learned from the movement is that you "have to struggle for anything that is worthwhile."
   He said the movement was a "struggle for goals that are good and help make a just society."
   HHS teacher Phyllis Vannozzi told each of the four groups of students that sat in on the discussion that "black history is important to U.S. and world history. Black history needs to be taught separately because it is never taught. Black history needs to be integrated with U.S. history."
   The presentation was broken into four 40-minute segments with class changes in between each. Because of this, each student did not get to see the entire discussion.
   Students were impressed with what they did get to see, however.
   "I really respect Ms. Martin and those who have been through the struggle and endangered their lives," said Becky McBride of East Windsor.
   Jennifer Kramer, also from East Windsor, said it was "strange to hear how segregated Hightstown was. I always heard about these things," but never realized how close they happened.
   Derek Kichula, from Hightstown, said he had a better understanding of "how frustrating it must have been for soldiers in Vietnam to fight for the rights of others, then to not get the same rights at home when they returned."
   The reactions were not all grim, however. Farhan Ali of East Windsor said it was uplifting to hear how "teachers and kids were able to work together" after integration.
   Highlights of the discussion will be shown during "Ram Report" on Comcast Channel 27. The program airs Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday at 10 a.m., 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.