Garner High Integration’s Impact on Teachers
BY MARGARET DAMGHANI
Part two of the series on the year of Garner High School’s integration focuses on the perspectives of the teachers. Two teachers, Mary Yarborough and Margie Hall shared their memories of the time. (Find Part 1: 1968: School Integration Comes to Garner - Principal Wayne Bare HERE)
Two local teachers, both transferring to the new Garner High from the school on Powell Drive and teaching there for three decades, are able to shed light on a complicated reality.
One largely characterizes integration as unproblematic, but judges it that way because of the lack of blatant conflict. The other recalls rallying black teachers together to support one another against a racist backdrop, and emphasizes the importance of acknowledging both the good and the bad.
Most staff undoubtedly believed in the aims of Wayne Bare and Earnest Sanders in regards to wanting an untroubled integration process, if nothing else, while dealing with the hardships of an unfinished school. None of the teachers appear to have opposed the changes being made openly, though a few quietly disagreed or showed their political views in regards to segregation outside of school.
Coming Together: Apprehension. Hope. Reality.
Mary Yarborough
“It was at this time that all of us, principal, teachers, students, custodial staff, and parents in the community pulled together to make our opening a success. The atmosphere was one of excitement and fear for two schools, one black and one white, merging together as one in 1968,” said Mary Yarborough. “We had issues just like any other school in Wake County, but we had an educated and caring principal who tried not to use prejudiced practices and decisions in solving problems.”
Yarborough was there full-time until 1997 and worked with Bare for one year when Garner High was still on Powell Drive.
Despite the concerted efforts of so many at Garner High that year, entrenched attitudes surrounding segregation and race would rear their ugly heads in situations less controllable than picking a new mascot or school colors. Teachers interacted with the entire community; students, parents, each other and administration, and staff from neighboring schools. These would prove to all be relationships affected by integration.
Extra Challenges for Black Teachers
One stubborn racist belief that black teachers were not as smart as white teachers cropped up in parent-teacher relations.
“Black teachers were sometimes confronted by prominent parents in the community about their child not receiving an A or B in their class. Some white students felt that a black teacher was not smart enough to teach them so they didn’t work as hard for an A or B in that teacher’s class,” Yarborough said. “I had a few like that. But I was always prepared for that kind of conference with parents by keeping a folder of every graded work and required work in a folder for each student.”
Yarborough took on an unofficial leadership role when it came to supporting the other black teachers at the school in those first years, sometimes getting 20 or so people together for socials. There were about 100 teachers in all.
“I wanted to let them know that I was always backing them in terms of them being included, them being heard, and them being not stepped on like they were nothing. They knew they could come to Mary Yarborough and sit and talk to me about it, and try to see both sides, and that’s the way we made it. We weren’t working against anybody, we just wanted to be treated fairly,” she said. “I think the reason I was successful at what I did is people thought that I was fair, that I cared about people. I brought that from my roots. Every bit of it.”
Black teachers had a harder time getting new resources, which seemed to generally go to the white teachers, she said. At times they were a listening ear for their black students who were subject to racist treatment by white students, whether or not it was on school grounds, and the two school counselors helped both parents and students wrestle with their differences in treatment.
“Teachers got along decently. There were issues over white teachers getting the best equipment for advanced classes and teachers of beginner classes had to wait for a couple of years for new equipment. As usual, blacks had to wait most of the time, especially in the vocational education classes,” said Yarborough. “We socialized in cliques a lot of times. You didn’t hear a lot of name calling or use of vulgar language unless you walked up on a conversation that you were not supposed to hear.”
Challenging Times & Tough Decisions
Margie Hall taught for two years at the school on Powell Drive before integration and taught Health Occupations. She doesn’t remember tension or specific conflicts between teachers, but says not all teachers agreed with some of Bare’s decisions.
Principal Wayne Bare
“I think some of them didn’t agree with it. There were a few of them that I didn’t agree with. You got to be flexible and understand where they are coming from, and I think we did that,” Hall said, of the compromises made, adding that Bare’s communication skills paved the way for the teachers’ success. He explained the changes and his reasoning clearly, regardless of how individuals may have felt about decisions.
“He was a tremendous leader. He had that talent, and that’s what made it work. I give him basically all the credit for just great leadership,” Hall said.
Hall also doesn’t remember witnessing any racist incidents happening in her particular class and didn’t approach anything differently after integration. She wonders if her background as a nurse and growing up on a farm made her more comfortable with her black students at a time when fellow white teachers may never have spent any time with anyone of a different race before, and she remembers a string of property damage and downed mailboxes targeting black residents in Garner some time before integration.
“I didn’t really have any problems. I just did what I thought was right. I just treated everybody the same. That’s what people want anyway. People just want to be treated fairly, when you get down to it,” Hall said. “I think that was the answer to all of it.”
Standing up together for Staff: Coach James Farris
Outside the walls of Garner High, it became necessary to stand up for black coaches, at least on one well-known occasion.
After the well-qualified James Farris from the Consolidated School was appointed basketball and golf coach despite some complaints, he faced discrimination when trying to coach his team, sometimes not allowed to get off of the bus during games.
“There were disputes and hard feelings among coaches and some parents in sports from both schools. White head coaches wanted to remain as head coaches and felt comfortable with black coaches being assistant coaches. There was the same feeling among administrators. However, the late James Farris, a black coach, was a pioneer in sports at Garner Senior High School,” Yarborough said. “He worked very hard to become the head coach of the boy’s basketball team and head coach of the boys golf team. He wasn’t allowed to be on the golf course during a tournament with his players.”
Because of the athletic division Garner High was in, the teams played schools along the Virginia border, as well as Durham and Chapel Hill. Bare was a part of an administrative organization for the division that consisted of coaches and school administration, so he decided to look for support there.
“I called a person at Chapel Hill High School. ‘This is the situation we’re in, and I’m looking for a sympathetic ear from somebody who attends these conference meetings’,” Bare said, adding that he doesn’t believe there were any other black coaches in the entire division at that time. “He was responsive to that. He and I in essence set the tone. We got over that in just a matter of months.”
Paving the way for the future:
Even Positive Progress is never perfect
The guiding principles of Garner High’s integration and situations in which leadership chose to advocate for black teachers were unique for the time period, yet it’s also clear that prevailing attitudes could not be overcome solely by the manner of Garner’s integration.
“There were a lot of things the black teachers especially knew weren’t going right, but we just didn’t push the button,” Yarborough said. “It was not something that kept us from functioning and being able to get the best we could out of what we had on campus, that includes the teachers and students. We still tried to do our best when it came to Garner Senior High getting things done.”
These truths make it hard to define what impact Garner’s unique integration plan had on the working life of Garner High’s staff in the 1968-69 school year, but unsurprisingly, the experience of the time period was different, depending on whether one was black or white.