About this Project

By Jessica Austin, Yakera Barbee and Markisha Motton
Seventh graders from Franklin Middle School

Seven of us girls from Franklin Middle School were chosen to participate in the Brown versus Board of Education radio documentary project which was done in collaboration with WILL-AM radio. We were chosen to participate in this project by our teachers for the pride we show in our African American heritage, our hard work in class, and our leadership skills.

The Brown V. Board of Education Supreme Court decision was made on May 17th, 1954. This year people around the country are celebrating the 50th anniversary of this momentous decision which desegregated schools throughout the United States. Before this Supreme Court decision, Caucasian students and African American students often attended separate schools. In many cases, the African American students attended schools which did not have the same facilities as those the Caucasian students attended. When schools were forced to desegregate, students of all races attended the same schools. This decision led the way for the end of segregation throughout our country.

For this project we interviewed many African American community members including Mr. John Lee Johnson, Mrs. Hester Suggs, Mrs. Kathleen Slates, Ms. Hattie Paulk, and Mrs. Erma Bridgewater. We wanted to find out how African Americans were treated prior to the Brown Decision. We were interested in how they were treated by their peers after the schools were desegregated and whether or not this decision had local impacts upon our schools today.

We were surprised to find out that prior to the Brown Decision, that schools in Illinois were not segregated by law, but rather, they were defacto segregated. This means that kids attended their local neighborhood schools, but because the neighborhoods were segregated, the schools were too. It is interesting to look around Franklin today. Many of the kids in our school are African American even though the Champaign schools are desegregated. Many of the kids who choose to come to Franklin live in this neighborhood, which is primarily home to African American families. Many of the non-African American students at our school are bused in from the South and more prosperous neighborhoods in town.

During our interviews, we asked a series of questions that helped us to understand what our community was like prior to the Brown decision. We also asked questions that helped us to understand how this decision impacted how our schools look today. When asked about the treatment by his teachers, Mr. John Lee Johnson told us that he didn’t feel any prejudice from his white teachers. “I felt, in retrospect, that my best teacher was Miss Lawson, the old white lady who pulled my coat tails and said, ‘You’re not doing good. You gotta do better if you’re gonna survive.’”

We learned that our community has changed a lot since the 1950s. Mr. Yarber of Champaign told us about the time he was deciding to join the Champaign High School football team. He was told by his coach, “You are going to have to be twice as good as the white boys to play here.” Today, neither teachers nor coaches would say such things.

Most importantly, we learned that as young African American people, we need to take our education seriously. People fought hard for us to be able to have a good, fair education, and it is up to us to take advantage of their hard work, and not to just throw all of their efforts away.

Our documentary, “Our Journey: Stories of School Desegregation and Community in Champaign-Urbana” will air Saturday, May 15th from 5-6 pm and again on Monday, May 17th from 6-7 pm on WILL-AM 580. Please tune in.

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