Charlottesville 12 recall integration experiences

A day after two new historical markers were unveiled honoring the “Triumph of the Charlottesville 12,” half of the first group of black students to enroll in previously all-white Charlottesville schools reflected on experiences both good and bad during a panel discussion Saturday at Venable elementary.

Some speakers remembered only good things about 1959, the year that nine black students entered Venable and three entered the former Lane High School, while others described hostility that left them angry at the entire city. The main point that the group seemed to try to get across to the crowd of about 100 gathered in the Venable auditorium was that the experience 52 years ago instilled in them the work ethic, personal skills and high-quality education that led to success in adult life.

John Martin, the oldest of the Charlottesville 12, who entered Lane as a 14-year-old, said he was physically attacked by his peers, barred from playing on the football team and ignored by every teacher except for his Spanish instructor.

“There was not one other teacher that was accepting,” Martin said. “I raised my hand to ask a question or to answer one and was not called on.”

Martin, who went on to a career in electrical engineering, said the high school was more unpleasant than the elementary school, because when people get older, they begin to be indoctrinated into bad habits.

“The older kids were obviously more harsh than the younger ones,” said Martin, the only student who integrated at Lane to attend the discussion. The Venable students spoke of similar feelings of isolation, but said they experienced little outright animosity.

“I didn’t have any fear. I didn’t have anybody say anything nasty or anything like that, but I got a lot of stares. ‘Why are you here?’ that sort of thing,” said Ronald Woodfolk, who entered Venable at age 12 and went on to graduate from Howard University and work 38 years in the oil industry. “Basically, I was not afraid, but I felt isolated, because I had no one that looked like me in the classroom.”

Woodfolk’s brother Roland said their mother was the main driving force behind their enrollment in the all-white school, even though it meant risking her job as a domestic worker in a white household.

“It was the parents who stood to risk the most … just for their kids to have a good education,” said Roland Woodfolk.

Sandra Wicks Lewis, who entered fourth grade at Venable as a 9-year-old, said many students were cordial to her and there was tolerance at the school, but the rest of Charlottesville remained segregated at the time, which limited her social activities with white friends as a pre-teen.

“The biggest social activity at that time was going swimming and having parties at the Fry’s Spring Beach Club, and I couldn’t go to the Fry’s Spring Beach Club. It wasn’t integrated,” Lewis said. “I guess that’s probably one of the most hurtful feelings … but I haven’t been on anybody’s couch, I don’t think I was damaged. And I think I have probably turned out to be someone who was able to get through a lot of other things in life because I became strong as a young person.”

Charles E. Alexander, who entered second grade at Venable as a 7-year-old, said he had “real good” experiences at the school, but it wasn’t the school itself that prepared him for an education.

“Venable did not prepare me. My mother, my grandmother, my aunt, my uncle, my cousins, the community prepared me to come to school. And that’s a message that all you parents that are here today … if someone has made you dependent on the school to raise and educate your child, it comes from the home. And believe me, I got it from the home,” said Alexander, who has spent years as a motivational speaker for children under the pseudonym “Alex-Zan.”

Regina Dixon, who entered Venable as a 7-year-old first-grader, said she didn’t have a bad experience, adding that some teachers invited her over for tea and fellow students invited her to sleepovers.

“With that experience of coming into Venable and the mixing of races, it enabled me to go ahead and put that foot forward, and not be frightened about whether I’m going to get rejected,” said Dixon, who started out her career working for an airline. “It’s been a blessing. It’s been a good experience.”

Rounding out the Charlottesville 12 were Raymond Dixon, Maurice Henry, Marvin and William Townsend, French Jackson and Don Martin.

When audience members were given a chance to ask questions, the participants were asked whether they, their parents or the black community faced any violent repercussions during the early days of school integration.

“My parents suffered more from my attending Lane High School from their black friends. They were upset about that. They wondered why people were putting down the black schools, the black teachers. As a matter of fact, they lost friends,” Martin said. “In terms of physicalness, nobody got physical with my parents, but I got a lot of the physical stuff at Lane.”

Alexander answered by saying that Charlottesville’s transition to integrated schools was one of the smoothest in the state, according to longtime civil-rights activist Eugene Williams.

“According to historians … the white community was a little more open here in Charlottesville …,”
 Alexander said. “Now was it perfect? I’m sure by no means. But it just was a smoother transition.”

The participants were also asked whether they felt the integration of public schools was damaging to jobs and business in the black community, and whether black students lost some of the “nurturing” that took place at all-black schools.

Lewis responded by saying many parties suffered as a result of integration, but many also suffered when slavery ended.

“There were people that had been taken care of — the slaves — that had been on plantations and at least they had food … they were treated harshly, but they had a hard time after slavery ended,” Lewis said. “I don’t think they would’ve said we should’ve kept it so we can be safe and secure.”

The events honoring the Charlottesville 12 were organized by the city of Charlottesville, the Dialogue on Race and Our Legacy of Charlottesville & Albemarle County.

The discussion was moderated by Andrea Copeland of the media-production company Positive Channels.

Copeland ended the discussion by asking the Charlottesville 12 if their experiences ever caused them to feel angry toward white people.

Roland Woodfolk said the experience taught him how to deal with different people, which made him more successful in his career.

“I went into banking,” Woodfolk said. “How many blacks were in banking in the ’70s? I was the first.”

John Martin said he has not lived in Charlottesville since 1961 because of the anger he felt over his mistreatment, but his career experience taught him that there are good people and bad people of “all races, creeds, colors, religions.”

“The anger, in my case, is gone. I was an angry young man, yes, because I was treated badly by Charlottesville,” Martin said. “… Over time, things change … The country is better for what we did. It was not just education, it was integration. And the integration started with education. Now we’ve integrated everything … We are a much stronger country when we’re using all the brains we have here.”

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