T. Harry
Williams Center for Oral History Collection
INTERVIEWEE NAME: Evanna Jackson-Hodges # 4700. 0741
IDENTIFICATION: First
African-American to attend Brusly High School
INTERVIEWER: Joanne Bourgeois
PROJECT: West Baton
Rouge
DATES: 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;
although 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 masters 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's is a culturally diverse place; there are children with Hispanic, Cambodian, and
Vietnamese backgrounds as well as African-Americans and whites.
TAPES: 1 TOTAL PLAYING TIME: 1 hour
# PAGES TRANSCRIPT: 55
RESTRICTIONS: copyright
retained by interviewee, interviewer, and/or their heirs