Latrelle McAllister oral history excerpt

About this recording

From oral history interview with Latrelle McAllister, June 25, 1998. Interview K-0173. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007).

Date created

June 25, 1998

Duration

2:37

File

MP3

License

This recording copyright ©2004. All Rights Reserved

Source

Original audio housed by Documenting the American South / UNC Libraries

See this recording in context

• Postwar North Carolina: Primary sources and readings explore the history of North Carolina and the United States during the postwar era (1945–1975). (Page 4.9)
• Desegregating public schools: Integrated vs. neighborhood schools : In this high school lesson plan, students will learn about the history of the "separate but equal" U.S. school system and the 1971 Swann case which forced Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools to integrate. Students will examine the pros and cons of integration achieved through busing, and will write an argumentative essay drawing on information from oral histories.

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• Search LEARN NC for history, North Carolina, oral histories, race relations, and segregation.

In the classroom

Latrelle McAllister is an African-American woman who attended West Charlotte High School from 1973 until 1976, during the first years of integration. She speaks about her experiences of both segregated and integrated schools during her interview, and compares and contrasts the two types of schools.

Transcript

Latrelle McAllister

However, one of the things that I think is important, though, is that students do have the opportunity to have exposure to cultures outside their own. You know, I work in human resources and a lot of the issues that I see in my job come from cultural clashes. Not necessarily racial clashes, but cultural clashes. I was brought up differently from you and so I see things differently than you. I approach problems differently. I communicate differently. I think that integrated situations are beneficial to African-American children because it gives them the opportunity to develop those skills that they’ll need as they work and live in the society at large.

So, I think that there are some benefits to integration, although, I’m not sure that — you know, my husband and I have chosen not to put our child on the bus. We take him to school. But there are children who have to get up as early as 5:15 and do that. And for those parents who aren’t able to get their children to school in any other way, I imagine that is a concern for them. So, from a humanistic standpoint I really don’t advocate children having to get up that early and have maybe three, four hours of their day spent on a bus. I think that there are a lot of bright minds in the education community and I think there are some ways to come together and partner to solve those problems. I think those problems aren’t those that are easily attacked.

But, like I said, I just don’t know. There’s still some debate about the benefits of it. For instance, if in school, especially elementary school, if I got in trouble, if I got in trouble on the way home, or if I got in trouble in the community at large, I could be sure that my mother would know about it or my father would know about it and that something would be done about it. There’s not that type of support. There’s not that village that we talk about that’s important in raising and nurturing and shaping young minds. Perhaps a part of the movement away from busing is the movement toward establishing those villages where we can nurture our children. That’s probably not a bad approach. But, I do think that there’s value in exposure to other cultures.