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Why She Stayed... is an insightful recollection of a high school student's life and observations of fragile race relations in the 1960s. Told in descriptive and often humorous language, it captures the tenor of the times. It also shows the more personal and sometimes painful experience of the author.
Robert J. Booker, Columnist, Knoxville News Sentinel, Knoxville, TN
Why She Stayed at an African American School, Solomon Coles, During Desegregation, brought back fond memories of dedicated parents and teachers with high expectation who pooled resources of skills, time, and talent together to assist every student in reaching his/her potential. This book takes us back down memory lane and reminds us of the importance of how family, friends, educators, and community played a vital role in the education, during desegregation. Thanks Brenda for remembering and sharing.
Marilyn Carrington Davidson, Retired Educator and Principal, Knoxville, TN
I read your book with great interest. You tell a story, which needs to be told. In telling it, you raise questions, which are not popular positions. I think that many of us have long been aware that the successes of civil rights have deprived many African-American neighborhoods of leadership. We can see it in your account how segregation made it possible for some traditional leadership groups to operate. Your teachers were really keepers of the torch. The work of Black teachers in both high schools and colleges educated Brenda Mazone so that Brenda Glasgow could take advantage of opportunity, when doors opened up.
What I found most moving is the notion that both African-American teachers and African-American business people were victims of integration. I think that you also make clear that integration meant that Black youth had to face the continuing racism of white society more directly. As someone who was active in the civil rights movement, the slowness of change in American life was long disappointing. Perhaps, however, we are still moving.
A lot of people paid the price of progress. I think mostly of the Black kids, who had to walk through lines of abusive, foul-mouthed demonstrators, and who, at the end of the day, did not receive in their new schools the emotional support Brenda received. Brenda also makes clear that Black teachers and businessmen paid a price. I hope that the payoff for Brenda, her children and grand-children was worth it.
Is there going to be a sequel on how Brenda Mazone became Brenda Glasgow?
Martin Klein, Professor, University of Toronto, Canada
I’d like to place your book in the libraries of schools I attended…as well as in the library of our family church. Your work needs to be read by young people, and I can at least make sure the students at my schools and in my church will have that chance.
Anne Galloway, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN
This is a wonderful book written by a wonderful person. She describes difficult times in an accurate but witty manner. Our hometown sister’s story is the story of so many others.”
Barbara Campbell, L.P.C., San Antonio, TX
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