Robert’s Story

My story is back in 1974 I lived in Mattapan and I went to Hyde Park hi Annex which was the Rogers 9th graders and 10th graders who took college courses because there was not enough room at the high school for all of us Our first day going to school was very traumatic we had to have a police escort and we used to drop off the high school students at Hyde Park before going up the hill to the Rogers they were long lines of white residents out there with signs you know yelling at us that was really really crazy Upon getting to the front stairs at the Rogers on the stairs and white paint I'll never forget this cuz this is an image in my mind "Niggers Go Home Back To Africa" The hallways at each classroom had a police officer some in tactical gear and at that time when you're looking at 1974 if there was probably one black police officer but mainly it was all white police officers most of the teachers were white that's just to show you how we had to adjust to this as your freshman year crazy okay one time I had a teacher who was really prejudice he had a nerve to say to me or we could take this outside in the hallway come on now really the racial climate being I'ma go out in the hallway have argument with a white teacher and there's nothing but white cops there that's insane Another thing that was another thing that happened Whenever there was a fight between a white and black student the black student was always handcuffed and the white student wasn't we had to fight the teachers the students and the police it was very customary to hear police officer say hey Jimmy how you doing tonight tell your family I'll be over for dinner At lunch time that was even more crazy you had the whites sitting on one half of the lunchroom the blacks on the other side of the lunchroom and everybody else in the middle You went to class that's all you did and then at the end of the day was really a journey because you got on the school buses and you had to wait for the police escort to take us home which for me was right across the street from my house at Lee Hunt playground in Mattapan About a week and a half that's when all the fun began when it was a riot there was a walk out at school I'm very lucky because I have missed the school bus that day and I had to take the MBTA to get to school which took me down to River Street and then I had to come up the back side and I saw a lot of white kids walking out of the building and luckily nobody said anything and myself and a few other of my friends who had missed the school bus did not have to encounter anything but we got in school they told us to stay away from the windows because it was crazy I played on the junior varsity football team luckily nothing happened there because we didn't have no police escort we had a school bus after practice so there was never a problem outside of there but that first year so after that big first riot They cut our classes by 8 minutes non-stop we went to school and we had no lunch because that's what a lot of the problems used to happen throughout the city especially at Hyde Park so we basically got out of school at 12:33 everyday for the rest of the school year it was really mind blowing The following year I went to Madison Park which was a magnet school and the funny thing was all those white students that were calling me n***** and had their signs out there ended up going to Madison Park and we never had a problem never had a racial problem at Madison Park during my three remaining years of high school Madison Park taught me a lot it was very diverse background of teachers and black I said it was a much better environment and then staying at Hyde Park but also as well I'm still president of the Madison Park Alumni Association I serve on the School parent in School site councils I've made involved in my alma mater for the last 11 plus years have advocated for quality equitable access to a vocational experience