Crossing Racial Lines: Meeting Friends They Never Had
Fifty years after they graduated high school, the formerly segregated classes of 1959 in Macon, Georgia gathered together. CNN.com reports “they returned for a one-of-a-kind 50th high school gathering. The classes of 1959, once segregated by race as well as gender, sat down together for the first time in history.” The idea for such a meeting was generated four years ago “when a son told his father: ‘Dad, think about how many friends you missed getting to know.’ ” The father, former head of CNN Tom Johnson, wrote to graduates of the white boys’ school, Lanier, the white girls’ school, Miller, and the black school, Ballard-Hudson, saying, “ ‘It is a different world today. We no longer are separated, except by personal choice.’ ” Participants felt a common need to come together to “discuss the past, while moving forward in the present.” They hoped to set an example for future generations as well as for the elderly in other Southern cities.
- Tom Johnson wrote to the 1959 graduates, “ ‘It is a different world today. We no longer are separated, except by personal choice.’ ” Do you agree with Johnson? Why or why not? What has changed since 1959? What has not changed very much, if at all?
- When talking about the gathering, Linda Carstarphen Gugin said “her whole life had been leading to this moment. ‘It was the most amazing thing. . . . It was just like almost immediate bonding between people.’ ” What might have made it possible for Gugin to bond with people she barely knew 50 years ago? What does her experience reveal about the factors that bring people together across racial and gender backgrounds?
- The son of Bettye Webb-Hayes said that from “listening to his mother and her childhood friends . . . he was struck by how segregation ‘was so transparent to them at the time they were living through it. It was a way of life, so they didn’t acknowledge its existence. I find it interesting how human nature teaches you to accept things that are—and some people question the reality, and other people don’t.’ ” In what way was segregation transparent 50 years ago when Webb-Hayes was growing up? What aspects of our society today do you think are so engrained that people do not notice them? Why might some people question “the way things are” and others not? What are some of the benefits of questioning “the way things are”? What are some of the challenges of questioning “the way things are”?
- CNN.com reports that, among the participants, “there was a commonality—a need to come together for their children, their grandchildren and the generations to follow. Discuss the past, while moving forward in the present.” Why might people at the gathering have felt the need to come together for the younger and the future generations? Do you believe that talking about the past can help us move forward in the present? Why or why not?
- The 1959 class president of Lanier, a white boys’ high school, said, “ ‘I’m glad we’ve left the past behind.’ ” How would you respond to this statement? Do you think the people at this integrated gathering have left the past behind? Do you think it is possible to leave the past behind? Why or why not? Under what circumstances, if any, do you think that forgetting the past is a good thing?
