T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History Collection

ABSTRACT

INTERVIEWEE NAME:  Evanna Jackson-Hodges          COLLECTION:  4700. 0741

IDENTIFICATION:   First African-American to attend Brusly High School

INTERVIEWER:     Joanne Bourgeois

PROJECT:   Brusly Centennial

INTERVIEW DATE:   11/24/96                                       

FOCUS DATES:   1950s-1960s

ABSTRACT:

Tape 1075, Side A

Introduction; birth date; family background; family reunions; growing up in Brusly, Louisiana; going to Israelite Baptist Church; going to Antioch Church for Bible school; Lukeville Elementary School, teachers and memories of walking to school along River Road; running into old school teacher, Miss Eads, many years later in California, their ensuing relationship; in 1962, going to Cohn High School, a segregated school, in Port Allen; waking up early for the long trip there, an exhausting experience; desegregation in the 1965-1956 school year; entering Brusly High School in 1966 for her senior year; her first day of school; going to school for an education, not for socializing; teachers; singing in the choir; she received more academic attention at Brusly High than she did at Cohn High; her interaction with other students; she received no scholarships despite her hard work, her father put her through Southern University in Baton Rouge; being recruited by Stockton Unified School District in California upon graduation from college; working in California for the year and taking graduate courses at Southern University over the summer; staying in California and meeting and marrying her husband; childhood memories of her family and playing with other children; her expectations of attending Brusly High School; on her first day, her parents drove behind the bus; sheriffs and/or patrolmen were at the school to ensure her safe integration; teachers and other students.

Tape 1075, Side B

One girl challenged her at Brusly; boys teased her, but her father and brother intervened; her motivation and maturity; her parents’ relationship with the community; after graduation and moving to California, she began teaching science and family education at a middle school that was once known as Daniel Webster Junior High; she got a master’s of science in education administration; the socio-economic and cultural profile of the city in which she resides in California; it was a farming community that has become very commercialized; it is a culturally diverse place; there are children with Hispanic, Cambodian, and Vietnamese backgrounds as well as African-Americans and whites.

TAPES:   1 (T1075)                                                 TOTAL PLAYING TIME: 1 hour

# PAGES TRANSCRIPT: 55

RESTRICTIONS: Copyright retained by interviewee, interviewer, and/or their heirs