[solemn brass music]
- James Seawood: As a child,
I would climb up on the lumber stack
and look over at the white school.
Huge school with a band, football team,
everything that you could imagine.
And on our side, here we were with our two-room school,
outdoor toilets, and two teachers.
And gradually, as the Black population in town
began to go down, that left my mother there at the school
as the principal, the janitor, whatever was needed,
she had to do everything.
And as long as there was one Black child left in town,
they had to keep the school open.
So 10, 9, 8, Mother was there till the last child,
the last family was forced out of town.
So I remember one day,
Mother and I got in the old station wagon
because Mother had heard
that the school was going to be torn down.
We went inside the school,
we got whatever records we could find.
We put them in the back of the station wagon.
Then a big bulldozer came and dug a deep hole.
And after digging this deep hole,
just pushed our beloved school in the hole
and covered it up.
And it was as though it was never there.
Years later, when I was in graduate school
and people would talk about urban renewal,
I had a particular perspective.
To me, urban renewal meant they'll dig a deep hole
and push your school, cover it up,
and it'll be like the school never existed
or you never existed.
I'll never forget those days.
Even today, this town of Sheridan, Arkansas
is an all-white town.
And if you ever have an opportunity
to go through that town, drive very slowly.
[solemn piano music]