Fifteen Red Roses
The Challenge of Public School Race Relations in Rural Georgia
by
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"We're on the Atlan'a news again, Mama. I'll turn it up," Susan said as Eve was preparing supper at home Friday.
"Janus County is calm now after a day of demonstrations, name-calling, and confrontations between the county school Superintendent John Wyatt and the SCLC leaders, who are continuing the Negro boycott of the schools and supporting the claim of Negro principal W. F. Farmer that he has been unfairly treated by the Board of Education, who did not renew his contract for next year. The SCLC is using students of the Negro high school boycott to demonstrate at the white high school. They led about 50 protesters into both the Janus County High School and Elementary School, banging on lockers and doors, damaging property, and frightening children, especially the younger ones. The leaders were arrested. White parents responded by appearing at the school with pistols and shotguns, and walking around menacingly at school's end. The head of the statewide Negro teacher organization called for Superintendent John Wyatt's resignation. Most of the student leaders have been bonded out of jail by their parents or the SCLC. The weekend cooling off period is welcomed by all down there in Janus County."
"Are we going to school Monday?" Roselyn asked.
"Well, of course, unless somebody is sick. We always go to school."
"Some of my friends said their parents weren't going to let them go because it was dangerous," she responded.
"In my class, too," Rob said," but I knew we would be there."
"Yes, as long as we can put one foot in front of the other, we go to school an' to church," Susan said, "don't we, Mama?"
Eve looked at them all, carefully choosing her words.
"Yes, we are going to school, every day, as long as we are healthy, an' praise the Lord, we are healthy. There is nothing to be afraid of. Your teachers will be there at the doors, as I will be at mine. Our churches will pray for us, we will have policemen an' state troopers called in as necessary. There are people far wiser than I am who know what to do in this situation. Try to learn everything you can in your books. If your teachers do not finish them, you read them to the end anyway. Your competition in college and jobs is not in Janus County. You are not excused from academic learning, even though it may be pushed aside for all these changes. Do the best you can. Use common sense. If something bothers you an' you want to talk about it, I am here, an' so is your Daddy. An' God is always watching over us."
"We know, Mama," Claire said. "So far, nothing has happened that we couldn't handle."
Eve hugged them close to her. Who can prepare for a revolution?
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About the Book
In the fall of 1962, Eve Windham begins her high school teaching career with enthusiasm—“I’ll be the best teacher they ever had!”
By the spring of 1969, the power of the civil rights movement reaches Janus County, resulting in a court order to integrate the public schools the next fall. Eve must face the challenge of possible violence with courage.
Persevere with her to create new grading systems and group activities for her mixed classes. Ride with her to transport contestants and judge debate competitions. Sit with her in long, continuous meetings for the boys and girls. Laugh and cry with her in the interactions with family, colleagues, and administrators. Pray with her as she seeks to interpret for her teenagers war and death in Vietnam, bitter disappointment, baffling college standards and demonstrations, and a shifting culture. Then you may rightly judge the significance of Fifteen Red Roses, one for each year she taught us.
About the Author
Author and retired educator Ann W. Yearwood is well known in her Georgia county, where she has lived with her husband most of her adult life. She writes about home, school, church, and community. Her research on interracial dynamics was published in The Gerontologist (1983); her first book, Redbird Farm, debuted in 2008. Two of Ann’s four children still live in the county and have families of their own. Wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, aunt, and friend, Ann likes to think of herself as an encourager.