Follow-Along Listening Experience — Scene 47

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Scene 47 — Classroom Presentation

The classroom. Students seated. TJ narrates.

[TJ NARRATOR:] The day finally came to give our social studies report. Andy and I began by introducing ourselves, which the teacher said we had to do even though we all knew each other by name now. His collar was buttoned at the neck, which made him look like a geek.

ANDY My name is Andrew Campfield. We moved here this summer from Birmingham, Alabama because my dad got a new position as a history professor at Wichita State and my mom got an adjunct position teaching English at Friends University, which is a smaller college here in town.

I didn’t know his parents were college professors. He elbowed me in the ribs to let me know it was my turn to talk.

TJ My name is TJ Crowley. I was born and raised right here in Wichita.

I avoided saying my brother was in Vietnam and my dad was gone and my mom never left the house.

ANDY Our report is called “We Shall Overcome Someday, Maybe, Who Knows?” But it could be called, “Mission: Impossible!”

People laughed, just like Andy said they would. We were off to a good start.

ANDY Our report is about race relations from a Black and white perspective.

TJ We figured the best way would be for me to talk about the Black people and for Andy to talk about the white people.

ANDY If we do it that way, maybe we can avoid a riot.

That joke fell flat. Nobody laughed.

ANDY According to Crowley, the Kid Klansman, God likes white people better than Black people.

Kid Klansman? Did he call me Kid Klansman?

ANDY He says it’s written in the Old Testament of the Holy Bible, written by Jesus himself.

Mrs. Herndon laughed and I wondered why.

ANDY According to TJ, a man named Ham committed a terrible sin so God sent down a curse on all of Ham’s people, marking them with dark skin. That’s why Black people are Black — the curse of Ham. Straight out of the Old Testament.*

Leon jumps up.

LEON Crowley! You must be out of your mind!

MRS. HERNDON Leon! Sit down!

LEON But—

MRS. HERNDON Now!

Leon sat, glaring at me.

MRS. HERNDON We are here to learn from each other and to listen to different points of view, as disturbing as they may be. Go ahead Andy, continue.

ANDY As TJ says, since God made white people better than Black people, it was His will for white people to come to Africa, put us in chains, pack us into boats and bring us here to be their slaves.

It sounded a lot worse the way Andy explained it.

ANDY But there are many white people who know that God created everybody equal and that slavery was a sin, including John Brown from Kansas.

He holds up an encyclopedia image.

ANDY This mural is on the wall of the State Capitol building in Topeka. That gives me hope about the future of Kansas.

This wasn’t what I thought he had planned to say. He handed me the encyclopedia and I read aloud from it about the Civil War and slavery. Then I spoke from memory.

TJ The Civil War was supposed to free the slaves but down South, where Andy comes from, things haven’t changed much for Black people. That’s what the Civil Rights Movement is all about. Even so, many white people, and some Blacks, think we should stay with our own kind — separate but equal — and that trying to force us to live together and go to school together is a big mistake.

LEON Right on!

MRS. HERNDON Leon, please be quiet and let the presenters speak. So, what do you think about that, TJ?

I felt my face flush. I wasn’t expecting any questions.

TJ Well, at first I thought putting us together was a bad idea but now I’m not sure…

MRS. HERNDON What do you mean?

TJ Well, I don’t know. I guess because I’ve learned some things.

MRS. HERNDON Okay. Can you give us some examples?

TJ I didn’t know that up until a few years ago, a Black person wasn’t allowed to drink from the same water fountain as a white person or use the same restroom as a white person or sit in the same bus station.

My hands were sweating. We were supposed to stay on script. We had it all planned. I darted a glance at Andy, who stepped up to rescue me.

ANDY The late, great Dr. King said, “We may have all come here on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.” Can we live together in the same boat? Are Blacks and whites going to live together or live separately?

TJ People who want us to live and go to school together are called Integrationists.

ANDY And people who want us to stay with our own people are called Segregationists.

TJ The whole country is arguing about this. You know we’ve had riots here but things have been a whole lot worse where Andy’s from.

ANDY A mixed group of Blacks and whites called the Freedom Riders rode a public bus from Washington, D.C. down to the South, where Blacks weren’t allowed to sit with whites at the bus stations. At one stop, a gang of white men beat them all with baseball bats and bicycle chains. The police did nothing to stop them.

TJ Things were out of control so Dr. King came and organized a protest march so the rest of the country would know.

MRS. HERNDON Only five minutes left, boys.

ANDY My dad and mom and sister and I walked together in that protest march, called the Children’s March, held May 2, 1963. We were peaceful and law-abiding, but the police sprayed us with fire hoses and sicced their dogs on us. I was only seven years old at the time.

Then Andy did something else we hadn’t planned. He put his right foot on the desk and pulled down his sock. A chunk of flesh was missing from his lower leg between his ankle and his calf. Everybody gathered around to see the crisscross of scars. He pulled his sock back up and smiled.

ANDY One of those police dogs got a hold of me, but I got away. That’s the day I learned I can run really, really fast!

####

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