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I have a story to tell about my grandfather, Milton P. Rooks Sr. He was a teacher, principal, activist and organizer in the Jim Crow South. He died in 1969. White supremacy masquerading as educational integration killed him. (Thread)
This is him in his white suit with his graduating students. He was at times the President of the local @NAACP in Pinellas County, Fla and sometimes he was the Secretary. Teaching was a doorway for him and others like him to advocate politics for Black people.
He worked with Harry T. Moore, a legendary civil-rights martyr and fellow teacher who lived a few hours away from him in Florida. Together they founded the Progressive Voters League at a time when even mentioning voting when Black could get you killed--check out that ride though)
Mr. Moore and my grandfather advocated for equal pay for Black teachers and worked hard to register Black voters. Emory Prof. Vanessa Sidell Walker writes about how central Black teachers were to strong Black communities and Black children in this era. READ HER.
Like a lot of Black teachers at the time, my grandfather envisioned an integration strategy where the adults, not the children took the lead and Black teachers and administrators would first to go to white schools and vice versa, before sending children to integrate.
My grandfather said that this integration strategy was necessary because he wasn't sure white teachers and administrators would love and nurture Black children in the ways that would ensure they could survive and thrive.
He didn't know that integration would lead to the closing of so many Black schools and the firing of thousands of Black teachers. That's what happened to him in the mid 60s. He found work at a community college, but budget cuts led to all the Black teachers getting fired.
Forever an activist, he organized the other teachers to sue. The trial lasted months. I have the transcript. They sat in the courtroom everyday and listened while they were called incompetent over 200 times. It's hard for me to read. I don't know what it meant for them to hear.
This not being a Disney movie, despite their being respected and beloved in their communities, they lost the case. No one would hired him or any of the others. He died soon after. I choose to think that integration killed him bit by bit, and then all at once.
This is a picture of my grandmother with her class of students. Integration didn't kill her, but it destroyed so very much that she cared about. Her story is a little different. I will tell it at another time.
I wrote Cutting School because Black Lives Matter in education and because Black children matter and because violence comes in many forms.
