Crossover Teacher: The Erma McCampbel Story One Black Teacher, an All-White Teaching Faculty

By Erma McCampbel

The most difficult time that I can recall was during the school year 1966-1967. I was returning to work after having ended a maternity leave. The school board in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, asked me to become the first of its Black crossover teachers. I reluctantly agreed because up until that time, no Black teacher had taught a White child in a public school. This appointment came during the Wallace administration, and Governor Wallace was openly opposed to this assignment. Between the governor, the school board, the US Justice Department, and the US Commission on Civil Rights, tolerance levels were somehow raised. I was a victim of threats and harassment for such a long time that I learned to expect them. Issues were so heated that after four days in the classroom, I resigned. Three days later, I went back to work, same position. What followed was a year of my being constantly questioned and challenged about everything I did as a seventh grade mathematics teacher. For five years, I taught in that situation and saw many differences resolved, and upon resigning the position to join my husband here in Colorado, there was no rejoicing over the fact on the part of teachers, students, or parents. If indeed I have helped Americans in any way to increase their appreciation for each other, the experience has been well worth it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Dec 19, 2022
• ISBN: 9798885405911

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Crossover Teacher

The Erma McCampbel Story One Black Teacher, an All-White Teaching Faculty

Erma McCampbel

ISBN 979-8-88540-590-4 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88540-591-1 (digital)

Copyright © 2022 by Erma McCampbel

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

About the Author

Chapter 1

As I look into the future as far as human eyes can see, I see the wonders of the world and the glories that would be (author unknown). These were words spoken by me as I addressed my classmates at the Parker High School commencement exercises in Birmingham, Alabama. The words were enough to spur me on to complete at age nineteen and a half my BA degree requirements in three years so as to quickly join the ranks of those wishing to help create the wonders and glories of the world. My participation would be as teacher. Yes, that's it. I wanted to teach. I wanted to make a difference in the lives of other young people.

Teaching proved to be everything I thought it would be—satisfying and underpaying, and yet it's the only job I've ever wanted. I sometimes feel that I was too demanding and too easily disappointed when the subject of math was not as stimulating to my young students as it was to me. I expected perfection. Then again, what real teacher doesn't? I was excited about imparting knowledge. No one cared more or worked harder than I. After teaching five years in the Birmingham, Alabama, area, I began teaching math in the school district of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Here, too, teaching was a beautiful experience.

The racial climate in Alabama was at its worst during this time: the early 1960s. Vivian Malone, the first Black female graduate of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, had been admitted to the University of Alabama with federal troops escorting her from class to class. Our state governor, George C. Wallace, was insisting, Segregation today and forever, while the Ku Klux Klan was echoing his sentiments. I had somehow managed to maintain some thread of dignity even as I lived in Birmingham through the bombing of Black churches and the beating and jailing of innocent people who chose to march for freedom beside Dr. Martin Luther King in the late 1950s, the incidents of which are well documented. Having been reared in a very humble Christian home, I was taught to trust in the Almighty God to change any situation for good. I lived with that thought.

During August 1966, while on maternity leave from the Tuscaloosa County school district in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, the superintendent of schools phoned to ask if I would consider teaching math at the district's all-White Holt High School upon my return to work in September. Be it understood that prior to September 1966, no Black teacher had ever taught a White student in a public school setting in the state of Alabama. Schools were segregated by law. There were all-Black schools and all-White schools. Most Black people agreed that the schools were separate and unmistakably unequal. I agreed to accept the position at Holt High School. Simultaneously,