Oral History Interview with Alice Wilson

WILSON: We decided to integrate because we had heard some of the news reports about the desegregation law that had come about. We had also read an article in the local paper, The Maysville Messenger, about how it was possible for anyone to attend any school that they wanted to, black-- white--to be totally integrated situation. And I guess it really started as almost a joke with us. Because we would say, "Oh, okay so since we've read this article we'll see each other at Maysville High in September. Sure. Sure. Okay, we'll do that." And the more we talked about it the more serious it became. We decided maybe we should try. And we did. And the day that we walked into the building, was a real shock, because nobody expected it. There was no advance notice of this. So the ten of us walked into the main office, because there was--there was a kind of registration, if I remember correctly, in August. And we found out when that registration date was, and we went to the high school to register. We walked into many shocked faces, and announced that we were there to register to attend Mayfield High School. So, I, we were pushed--not pushed aside, but asked to sit for a few minutes because the secretaries were--had to go and ask what was going on, why were we there, what had happened, that kind of thing. And the Principle came out and we did register that day. I think--after that I think it was brought before the city council, there was some discussion about whether or not this was really going to happen, whether or not the applications were going to be accepted. And the city fathers at that time decided that it was a go. That we could attend. So we started our preparations to go to Mayfield High school. The first day of classes the students--I don't remember anything being published in the newspaper about exactly how many students were going to attend, or if any, that I don't really remember; but when we walked into some of our classes to register there were some more surprised faces. 'Cause there were students that had no idea that they were walking into this situation--an integrated situation. And that's when the whole sequence of events began.

WILSON: We weren't sure whether or not it was going to be accepted. We didn't know. And some people in the group thought, "Oh yes they are going to let us do this." And others said, "Probably not, but we are going to go through it anyway. We will find out what happens." That was the attitude: go in there and find out what's going to happen, and we did. As I said, there was--there was hesitation on the secretary's part. I don't remember being afraid in the office. We weren't made to feel that way. But the atmosphere was that no one really knew what to do. Whether they should go ahead and register us, or wait until there was some decision, perhaps from the Board at that time. They didn't really know what to do. But we registered, and then the whole process began I guess, with the Board of Education, with the City Council to decide exactly what the process was going to be. It seems that the members of the city council had decided that they did not want the, hmm, controversy, riots, fights or anything like that. So I guess everyone was busy about how to proceed peacefully, or as peacefully as possible.

WILSON: A typical day to get ready for school. I wore a skirt, socks, the popular shoe at the time, I guess either a oxford or a loafer, penny loafer; hair pulled back in a pony tail, a little barrette of some kind that matched the color of the blouse or the skirt, a sweater or jacket. And Dorothy was dressed the same way, it was typical dress for the teenagers at that time. And we started out on ah, just another day at school. Conversation on the way to school was about home work, how did you make out? I think I have this, well what happened with this problem? All that kind--and two things that teen-age girls talk about, hair, friends, boyfriends, those kinds of things. That's what we talked about on the way to school about every day. Just about every day--except this day was different, because when we reached Seventh Street, which faced the entrance of Mayfield high school; we saw a lot of activity; and for that hour of the morning it was very, very unusual. WE said, there's so many cars out here today, what's going on ? And we looked again and saw police cars. Wow. Then we started to see State, State Trooper cars, which was very unusual for Mayfield. We continued walking and saw more and more cars; more and more people around. We looked at each other and said, "Oh, it's going to be one of those days." Where something was going on--we didn't know what it was--we weren't close enough to the building to be able to tell, but we just knew that something was going on. We continued to walk toward of the building anyway. We got to the front, near the front walkway, I should say, to Mayfield high school. we saw that the students had decided they were not going to attend classes with us that day. And some of the other black students had gathered at the same point, we were all near the entrance, near the front walkway I should say, of the building. And there were some few that had already gone into the building, we weren't aware of that however. But there were students on either side of the walkway, yelling all the things that were yelled, nigger, coon, we don't want to go to school with you . Go home. We're tired of this, we are sick of looking at you, you terrible person, get away from us, you are dirty, you stink. So we said, "well, what are we going to do.?" I guess we were all thinking that, I don't know that we verbalized that. So we just started walking. and we walked through the crowds and into the building. Our principle at the time was standing outside to escort us through the front door, and we went in and classes were going on as usual, on schedule. Those students who did not want to participate were already in their assigned classes; we went where we were supposed to go, and our day began. I don't think those students on the lawn exactly got the reaction they wanted. There was no big camera out there, there were no news reporters running around taking pictures; and it certainly didn't stop us, so it didn't get the effect they hoped it would. Again I think probably the Principle--he probably handled that well, without causing more friction than there already was. He simply escorted us through the door and let the door shut. And it was their choice if they were going to stand out there for the remainder of the day, or come in the building. And after a while they found that nobody else was coming out there to say anything. They went into the building, that was the end of that day; and that incident was never repeated.

WILSON: I don't remember that so much at lunch time, I don't think so. Most of the time we would find--we would sit with each other. Black kids would sit together, at lunch time. And I usually ate the school lunch. You had an option to eat it there or bring--bring lunch. But I always ate lunch there. So I would say that we did eat together. All the black students ate together. And truthfully some of the other students shunned us at lunch time, they didn't want to sit at the table with us at lunch time. And it really didn't matter, it was Okay. Because at that point we had a chance to really talk to each other, find out what had gone on in the morning, how classes had gone, had there any problems. The time to really I guess, let down guard for awhile, and that was good.

WILSON: The teachers? I can only remember one teacher that wasn't particularly happy that we were there. And the only thing that I remember is--I think it was a math teacher--and if we asked for additional help, he always seemed to be too busy to give it. The other teachers? Surprisingly, I guess were very fair: we had no problems. They said that the situation-- we had no problems with the other teachers at all. And that was a good thing. That helped a lot.

WILSON: My mother would take me to some of the jobs that she had babysitting, or in some cases cleaning someone else's house, and she would take--my mother would take me with her, and some small chores I would share with her. And she would show me what she had to do in the hours that she was in a household. I would go with her to the baby sitting in the evening. Sometimes with very sick children that were left with her to take care of; their medicines and the fevers, and all those things that occur with a young child. I remember washing dishes, mopping floors, doing all the things that she did. And she never really said--said this at the time, but she was really showing me what were the choices that I had. That it was either to choose to study and go to college, or do the same kinds of things that she was doing; because those basically were the two choices. To do better or to stay and do the same that she was doing.

WILSON: The first year was very, very difficult, but considering all that was--that happened, I think I did very well the person who was in the class with me, Dorothy, we both studied very hard. We shared the work--working with home work doing those kinds of things. I think both of us did very well, I think I did very well. In the first year, and the next two years as well, we did just fine. With all the other things that were going on around us, we made it. There is one person in particular whose name is, Hugh Jackson, that helped all of us with home work. He was a teacher as well, and I needed--we desperately needed the help at that point; and he gave us a lot of help; so that we could stay as current as possible. If we were stuck with something, we could always call him. If we needed to take the home work he would help us get through it. There were other people in the community who would kind--they would keep an ear open and their eyes out for any small problems that might occur. And because my parents didn't have a car, there were family friends who did have cars so if they heard that there was the possibility of any disruptions for the day, they were close by. Near the high school, I should say. So if it was necessary for us to leave there quickly they would take us. And that was good. That was--it was some protection that we needed. It was very good. And again most of this happened during the first year, the second year that wasn't even necessary; but the first year it was. And there were waves of controversy, there were times when it was calm; other times when it was not. And there was no--no indication of why that occurred. It just did.