Last year, during my senior year of high school, they decided to combine my school – Eastside High School – with the ‘white school’ – Cleveland High School. Initially, the parents were more against it than the students were. But we wanted them to let us handle it because we were the ones affected. And, it was a rough transition. We were trying to adjust to being at a new school, with new people and having to give up a lot, take in a lot and change a lot.
I believe that one of our top volleyball players didn’t really get to have the exposure that she needed because of the coaching situation. I think her coach felt that since she was a black girl, she wasn’t going to be able to really make it far. But she’s in college now, and she’s doing great. She’s there on academics.
And that’s something that we had to learn. Yes, they may have taken some things from us. Yes, we may not have gotten some things that we would have gotten at Eastside. Our senior year was not exactly how we wanted it to be. But, we learned many lessons and received many blessings. We’re in college now, and if I’m not mistaken, many of us are on scholarship or other financial aid. And, if we’re not at universities, we’re at trade schools. We didn’t let that situation stop us from succeeding. We kept going.”
– Jamese, freshman biology/pre-med major from Cleveland, Mississippi
