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Pearlie Harris taught at three different Greenville schools in the 1970s – long after segregation was ruled unconstitutional, but just as schools in Greenville were actually desegregating.
When she switched from teaching at all-black school Burgess Elementary to teaching at all-white school Crestone Elementary, she was shocked at the differences: notably, white schools having teacher’s editions of textbooks – her prior all-black school never had that, so teachers had to find their own answers and write them into the textbooks themselves.
When Greenville schools actually started segregating, they transferred 12,000 students in the middle of the year. Things did not go smoothly, and riots and shootings were reported on from the district in the New York Times.
Harris says Greenville has come a long way, but there’s a long way to go, too. Read more of her story via Greenville Journal.
