This story does not take place in Southside Queens, NY or in South Philly, Brick City (Newark) for that matter, hell, it does not even take place in Compton. Ever heard of Farmville, Virginia, birthplace of the Lady of Rage ("Afro Puffs")? If your face is tight trying to figure out where Farmville is and who the Lady of Rage (the only famous person of note to come out of Farmville) could be, well you are just like many other people so do not feel bad.
The star of this story is a young, black quarterback named Charles Williams that now attends Fuqua School. Fuqua School is private and was part of a dozen or so private schools that popped in places like Farmville back in the 50s and 60s that only catered to white students. Farmville, population 8,200, sits in Prince Edward County and was one of the last counties to comply with the Brown v. Board of Education that desegrated schools. There was so much resistance, instead of desegregating, they shut down their public schools from '59 to '64. It is well known that the Prince Edward School System was one of the last school systems to give up the fight. Fuqua, originally named Prince Edward Academy, was founded in 1959 for whites only and was actually subsidized by tax dollars. Unreal how this was a little over 50 years ago!
Fast forward and although Farmville has Black residents, they all live in a certain area of the town and they all go to the same schools while the White residents live on the other side and go to the 'white school.' Fuqua did not accept its first Black student until the late 80s and the number of Blacks at any given time always remained under 5. Fuqua's President, Ruth Murphy, wanted to "diversify" her school and needed a way to change its image as being seen as anything but a racist school. She had to ask, "How do you diversify an institution founded to perpetuate segregation?" The answer would be a "black leader who is comfortable in two worlds;" the answer came in the form of a 14-year old named Charles Williams.
Charles is a big strong kid with a 'maturity' and 'intensity' that made Murphy a little uneasy; she once commented and later recanted this statement: "...he looked like a 25-year old drug dealer." I feel like there exists a book with precise decriptions of what a "drug dealer" looks like depending upon his age and this book is for whites only....sheesh!!! But I digress...
Murphy offered Charles a full minority scholarship (worth $7300/year) to Fuqua but he would have one condition: promote Fuqua among the Farmville Black residents. Charles accepted the scholarship and although he would be obtaining a better education he would do so at the cost of family and friends no longer supporting him on and off the field. He lost all of his friends!
Fast forward even further and Charles in now 17, captain of the playoff bound Fuqua football team, and known by many as the best athlete in the school's history. In three years, he has helped triple the amount of students at Fuqua to 15 out of 420 students. Still prejudices linger as he walks across school campus and sees words like "coonhunter" and "white power" spray painted but Charles has never forgotten who he is and where he comes from.
This story reminds me of some people I know, well actually, the MAJORITY of the people I know who are Black and had to be the first to do something or had to endure the hurt and pain of a racist past in what is supposed to be a "diverse" today. Our parents endured this tragedy first hand and will be the first to be dead set against attending "their schools." I remember coming home from college after my freshman year at Virginia Tech and my Dad casually saying that integration was the worse thing to happen to Blacks because we lost our sense of identity. I did not understand him then but I understand him now but that is a whole other blog, I digress.
I went to a majority white high school and I was the only Black male in my honors and AP classes consistently while being one of two black players on a 15-man roster basketball team. My teachers pushed me to form a mentoring group, called Reflections, that concentrated on students with low self-esteem. They felt I was the best candidate to talk to other students about something that plagues all students regardless of color.
While being an honor student and all-city basketball player, I was pulled over almost 40 times by Richmond's Finest in a year span my senior year in high school and NEVER received a ticket. I learned what "driving while black, aka DWB" meant first hand!! I also remember one night me and a friend of mine coming of a Blockbuster Videa and being stopped by two officers who said we "fit the description" of two burglars who just robbed a house across the street. They made us assume the position against the wall, they patted us down, and then took our mugshots on the spot while people were walking in and out of the videostore. I gave advice on self-esteem, after that episode, I needed somebody to give me some advice! I also learned what description I fit and it consistently was BLACK!
I laugh silently to myself when asked on a job interview, "what are some of th biggest challenges you have encountered?" I want to say, "applying for bank loans, picking up my wallet without being shot at, drive down the street in a nice car without being pulled over..." but I do not because what I don't want is sympathy or pity. I know who I am and what I am.
I just want to give kudos to men like Charles Williams and the countless others who have done this sort of thing since day one. A lot of us live in two worlds and we do this effortlessly, like breathing. They took a big step for men and stood in the face of adversity to achieve something greater than themselves. If you read this story to a Black man in this day in age, he will not be surprised; he would shrug his shoulders and say "welcome to our world." The only thing that is suprising is that it has taken the rest of the world this long to recognize this middle-class, Black male struggle.
This story will probably never become a movie or TV Show because there is not enough violence like the movie "Menace to Society" and it will not make you laugh like "Kings of Comedy." It is a story that may never get heard but it is living everyday.
Today, we have a Black President, something I never really thought I would see in my lifetime. There are very few counties, cities, municipalities like Farmville that exists anymore and I can probably go out on a limb and say there are not any segregated schools. The real question, are there still segregated minds? Is racism totally gone?
Some will say yes, some will vehemently say no. I do not really know, I just try to represent who I am to the best that I can be. But I will say this, if you ever read an online article and it has something to do with somebody Black, scroll to the end and read the comment section. Let's just say I am glad I am thick-skinned!
Thanks for posting because I would've never heard about this story!
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