Touching story Paul and good photos. I wish I could say I had done as much... Regards, Bob S.
On Fri, Jun 5, 2015 at 8:18 PM, paul stenquist <[email protected]> wrote: > I taught English Lit and Composition at a very special place called Percy L. > Julian High School from 1975 to 1980. Prior to my years at Julian I had been > teaching at one of the worst schools in Chicago — Austin High School — a > West Side school that had gone from 100% white to 100% black in a few years. > The administration and the largely white staff didn’t know what to do, the > school was out of control and on fire frequently and, at one point, the > National Guard had to be called in. In 1975 the federal government mandated > faculty integration, meaning that if you were a white teacher at a school > that had too many white teachers and you wanted to transfer to a school that > had too many black teachers, they had to allow you to apply for a position. I > had heard about Julian. It was an all-black school on the south side of > Chicago. It wasn’t a white school that had re-segregated but rather a brand > new school that a prosperous middle class black community had fought for. I > applied, the principal approved it, and the largely black staff welcomed me > and several other Austin teachers with open arms. > > I had some great classes and some wonderful kids at Julian. I taught Honors > English 3 and a special double-period Humanities class. The kids and I went > to the Chicago Symphony, the opera and a number of theatrical presentations. > We had a great marching band, majorettes and cheerleaders. All in the mid 70s > when the white kids in the suburban schools were thumbing their noses at > those kind of things. We also had a fabulous football team, and in 1979 we > became the first public school in almost 20 years to win a city championship > over the predominantly white catholic league schools. > > I documented much of my time at Julian on film. I have several thousand > transparencies and BW negs that I shot during those five happy years. I’ve > just begun scanning some of them. I started with that 1979 football > championship, but I have many more that I will eventually scan. > > In March of 1980 I was offered a job in New York at Hearst Magazine Division. > The Chicago Board of Education had run out of money and had stopped paying > the teachers. We were on the picket line when I got the call. I crossed the > line, walked into the office to turn in my resignation on Thursday afternoon, > March 7, 1980 and flew to New York the next morning. I still feel guilty. > Today, Julian is still somewhat better than the other Southside Chicago High > Schools, but the magic is largely gone. The entire south side of Chicago is > a mess. The gangs are in control, and kids are shot on the street every day. > A number of Julian kids have been killed on their way home from school. It’s > had for me to imagine. It’s heartbreaking. > > Here are the first of my Julian scans. The way it was 40 years ago. > http://photo.net/photodb/folder.tcl?folder_id=1080368 > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
