1968: School Integration Comes to Garner - Part 2: Teacher Perspectives
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.
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.
1968: School Integration Comes to Garner - Part 1: Principal Wayne Bare
“We haven’t overcome all these things yet, which is disappointing,”
— Wayne Bare
Wayne Bare at his home in 2020, holding the first Garner High School yearbook.
BY MARGARET DAMGHANI
The 1968-69 school year was not business as usual for 11th and 12th graders at Garner High, who were starting the year in a newly built school, with a new principal and a new vice principal. A new mascot, and new school colors. Two school counselors instead of one and for athletes, new teammates.
1968 was the year Garner’s high school integrated, and unlike in most places, a group of student ambassadors and administrators took steps to make the identity of the new Garner High representative of all students, and the black and white schools from which they’d be transferring.
1968: Still Separate. Still Unequal.
In 1968, North Carolina schools were still nearly entirely segregated, and Garner hadn’t been any quicker to embrace integration than the rest of the state. Nearly 15 years after school segregation was ruled unconstitutional, school systems were relying on Freedom of Choice programs, allowing for token amounts of black students to apply to white schools, rather than committing to or believing in the importance of integration.
“We haven’t overcome all these things yet, which is disappointing,” — Wayne Bare
Garner Consolidated School (now the site of East Garner Middle School), served every grade level for black students.
Six other elementary schools and a junior high existed, as well as what is now North Garner Middle School, serving ninth through 12th grades, among the traditional white schools.
Often when school systems integrated, white schools only did so after federal mandate, forced to enroll black students while black schools were shuttered and closed down, with little to no thought given to the sentiments nor impact black students and the black community.
Garner’s New Way Forward
The efforts at a thought-out integration process in Garner, at least at the high school, were successful enough that Principal Wayne Bare and Garner High are referenced in a scholarly article by J. Michael McElreath contrasting Garner with Chapel Hill, which struggled with years of tensions after Lincoln High was unceremoniously closed and the black students joined the white students at Chapel Hill High School.
Wayne Bare.
“During that time we were fully aware that there were people in the majority group, that loosely translates to the Caucasians, who weren't excited about this because they had the perception that desegregating schools, and bringing children of whatever race they happened to be all into one school would dilute the academic progress of the school. In particular, their children."
Wayne Bare, at the time principal of the old Garner High, began meeting with acting principal of Garner Consolidated Earnest Sanders, while the new school was under construction, to discuss how to best approach integration. Bare would become Principal of the new high school, and Sanders would become Assistant Principal, developing close, positive relationships with their students. Both have been spoken highly of by students in the community.
“As we were preparing for that year, we were attempting to lay the groundwork for getting to know people and what they were accustomed to at least in the school culture, from each side of that,” Bare said. A variety of questions had to be considered. What about the different styles of cheerleading? What if the prom queen and king are different races and how will the community react?”
Students Lead The Way
In early 1968 while Garner High was being constructed, they arranged for rising 11th and 12th graders, the only grades the high school would house at first, to meet and discuss student activities and spend time at each other’s schools.
Student input was involved in choosing a new mascot, merging school colors, ensuring there would be both black and white cheerleaders, and drafting a student council constitution that said that the President and Vice President should be of different races, to represent the student body fairly.
“That is credit if I have any,” Bare said, of the student advisory groups. While he is quick to downplay the credit he receives for Garner being seen as an example of where integration went well, there were dozens of little decisions impacted by integration to be made before and after the school opened.
Applying The Lessons
Wayne Bare brought his experience at Forsyth County schools, where he had been an assistant principal. During his time there, a smaller county school merged with a larger city school, and he applied what he learned to the issue of integration.
Bare said he faced an “unbelievable amount of skepticism and fear” from the smaller county school that coaches and others would be completely looked over in favor of the city school.
That brought home the importance of bringing teachers and coaches from both schools and ignoring some prominent members of the Garner community that voiced opposition to some of the decisions, notably the hiring of the well-liked James Farris as the basketball coach.
In an effort to make the students and parents feel more secure, Bare fought for the resources to have two school counselors, Christine Toole and Betty Knox.
“I stretched things a lot money wise and was able to eventually get agreement from the superintendent’s office. We twisted as much arms as we had leverage to do,” Bare said. “The counselor [Toole] exercised a certain amount of disciplinary guidance because not only did she know the students that had come from Garner Consolidated, she knew their parents and might have taught them. I think the fact we had the two counselors there was as much of a positive thing as we could have done.”
Yearbook Dedication
“This is my bragging page. They dedicated the first yearbook to me, and that’s the dedication,” Bare said.
Pages 4 and 5 of the yearbook read:
Happiness is not an easy thing. You must be willing to work for it and to shape it for yourself. Happiness is not dependent upon complete freedom from pain, but the ability to transmute pain into power. The human self is not a gift; it is an achievement. The same is true of happiness, for it is not a static reality sprung full blown. Rather, happiness is a painfully earned progress past lions in the way, a running battle, a continuing progress. Happiness is not something that comes upon from without, but is it is something that has its fountainhead in the heart.
It is knowledge that give man a clear, conscious view of his own opinions and judgement, a truth in developing them, an eloquence in expressing them, and a force in urging them. It teaches him to see things as they, to go right to the point, to disentangle a skein of thought, to detect what is sophisticated, and to discard what is irrelevant. To have knowledge — broad, deep knowledge — is to know true ends from false and lofty things from low. To know the thoughts and deeds that have marked man’s progress is to feel the great heart-throbs of humanity through the centuries.
Change Brings Success and Tumult
Perhaps one measure of the initial success of integration could be in the amount of incidents that required intervention.
“That's a point of pride. We made zero calls to the law enforcement or our central office about any kind of disruption at school,” Bare said. “I’m not dumb enough to tell you that there were never any problems. But there was never anything that would be described as a mob fight or any type of disruption in the building.”
When no black students made the cheerleading team, Bare intervened and went back to the wishes of the student ambassadors, administratively adding one of the two black students that had tried out.
“In my opinion, there is no group of students other than possibly some athletic teams where the school representation is more visible, to the community, to people in other communities,” he said. “And on the year where we have just brought two groups of students together, what message does it send about the nature of our school not to have a single minority? We had to have some representation.”
Right Man. Right Time. Right Place.
Bare doesn’t indulge much in reflecting on if their decisions during integration and building a new school had much impact beyond the immediate, nor does he speak much about the implications of those actions in a turbulent time period in which many white people accepted segregation as reasonable.
“We haven’t overcome all these things yet, which is disappointing,” Bare said.
He also says they didn’t waste time looking at how integration was going anywhere else.
“We were attempting to have equal opportunity in school events,” Bare said. “I don’t know that I made a judgment on it being radical, but it probably was. I did it from the standpoint of caring.”
All of these decisions were complicated by the fact that while all this was happening, Garner High’s construction wasn’t completed before the first day of school. But the community banded together and got the school ready enough for classes to start.
The lessons were yet to come.
To be continued in Part 2
A theatrical interpretation of Garner High’s integration can be watched below