. . . I wasn't very much on dancing and was very much amused when I . .
. the distinction I drew, when is it round dancing, when is it square
dancing and so forth, but I was the arbiter of when it's round and when
it's square. And I can see those little girls now, those young girls
bringing their escorts up to meet me. And their manners were just as
delightful and, by the way, the girls glee club was entertaining the
boys glee club and they came to me to get their date approved. And the
good old northern strict folks had warned me that this was quite a
question as to whether the girls glee club should entertain the boys
glee club. And it seemed to me a very nice idea so the girls came in to
me to talk about it. And being duly warned I said, what sort of party
had you planned Phyllis? And she hesitated and then she looked up to me
just sweet as sweet . . . and said, "an uplifting party."
So it really was. I went to the party and I assure you it was an
uplifting party, just a lovely party. But the good manners of those
young people, of course, let me see now, what made that trouble? Oh yes,
I'll tell you.
One conflict we had there, the only conflict we had during my years
there, the girls waited on tables in the big student dining room, took
turns at it and were paid for it you know. And it was the days when your
waistline was . . . coming down here the style was to have . . . I
forget what we call them, just a long waistline to your hips you see.
And the aprons that the girls wore were all regular waistlines. And so
this little girl waited on tables in the student's dining room, put her
apron on in this stylish way. And the
Page 30 matron, a New
England matron who was looking after Miss Clark told her to put her
apron up where it belonged because of the way it was cut. She didn't do
it. She told her to again. She didn't do it. And so, according to rules,
Miss Clark told her to go up and just report to the office. So she went
over to take off her apron and wash her hands and go up to the office,
and right next to her was one of the few, right next to the spot where
she was washing her hands was one of the few boy's tables. Most of the
tables were mixed boys and girls but there weren't enough girls to go
around. So this would be the boys' table. And the boys thought that it
was a great reflection on them to be put at the boy's table instead of
with the girls. And maybe they were a little more rambunctious boys I
don't know. But Miss Clark went over to hurry her to go on upstairs. You
see, she was seeing to the meal and she must have touched her. I don't
know what she did to her. But the boys rose as a group to defend this
colored girl against this teacher that was pushing her or slapping her
or something, I don't recall what they said, but I can't conceive of
Miss Clark doing any of those things. But that's the way the boys
started. So I had a call pretty soon that this girl had been mistreated
and so on and so forth. I called them into our office, including her
brother, and he was defending his sister he assured me and had
telephoned his parents to come and continue the protection of his
sister. I had miss Clark in, the matron, and we talked it all over and
they decided that nothing was really meant. There was no harm to it. So
he agreed to telephone his parents not to come and everything was
settled. And then, lo and behold, they would blow up again. I'd call the
boy in, the brother in, and he would say, well Miss Young,
Page 31 when I'm here talking with you it's alright. But when I go
out there the boys say, I'm not protecting my sister. So they . . . my
rooms were right over the entrance to the huge dining room and
ordinarily as they came into breakfast, at that time I was dressing,
they would sing. It was delightful for me to hear it. Good voices you
know, seven hundred boys marching into breakfast. And their favorite
song was, Yes We Have No Bananas. I don't think you go back far enough
to have ever heard it. It was very delightful. But during this troubled
times they would come in silence and it was very striking to me, very
striking to me. So I knew things were still bad and the president of
theStudent Council persuaded everybody to hold tight until time for
student council and then we would settle it there. So student council
time came and I expected the students to bring it up and they didn't.
And we went on through student council and it was dismissed. And after
it was over I asked Mr.
Lassiter, the President, I
thought the students were going to bring this up. Miss Young they
thought you were going to bring it up. So I said, well, lets call the
student council back together tomorrow and I will bring it up.
So I put it all before them and said, now Miss Clark has been here a long
time. I've talked with her and I've talked with the girl and would you
really like me to dismiss Miss Clark? Do you think she should be
dismissed? She said she was sorry, and everybody is sorry, what would
you like me to do about it? What do you think I should do? And I said,
now I think this . . . some people would say this is just a
teacher-student mess, but I said, I think it has racial overtones and
everybody that comes here to Hampton knows they're coming to a mixed
Page 32 racial situation and I think we're all under
obligation not to let the racial factor touch us. But I think it has in
this case and do you really think that I should fire Miss Clark? She has
already said she's sorry. What else would you like her to do? And they
faced up to it and said they didn't really want Miss Clark fired. And
they felt the best thing to do was to forget it and it not only was
forgotten but we were in a campaign at the time and the students were
asked to respond, you know, making their pledges. And I'm not telling
you how faithful they paid them up. I don't know, but they responded in
pledges very generously which was counted a wonderful test of their
general morale and they began to sing as they came to breakfast, every
morning. But that's the only racial conflict I ever had a part in in the
six years I taught in Negro colleges.