I learned that when my Nana was in second grade the first African American joined Mrs. Ogletree’s class at Pine Street Elementary School. It was a little girl named Lakisha White, and she joined the class in the middle of the year in 1963. She was from Tennessee and she always kept to herself, and never talked to her classmates. My Nana recalls watching the television about John F. Kennedy’s death the day that Lakisha came to school. Lakisha would wear dresses to school everyday and kept her hair braded. Lakisha’s mother worked for a local doctor in Conyers named Doctor. Joe Brown. He delivered my Nana, her two brothers, my mom and her brothers and sister.

When my Nana was in the third grade there were two African American girls in her class. The little girl’s names were Elaine Banks and Melba McKnight. They also wore dresses everyday, but they both had short straight hair. The two girls were more sociable than Lakisha. Elaine and Melba both played together but also included my Nana. They even tried to teach my Nana how to dance; they taught her dances called the popcorn and the jerk. The three made friends and played together everyday at recess. One time they even gave my Nana a pair of dangle ear rings. Theses two girls stand out in my Nana’s memory very fondly.

My Nana recalls many things that went on when she was going to school at a young age. When she went to town, she rode in a taxi to the movies. Once at the movies she would go in the front door at the Clay Building, where the movies were located on Main Street. She did not know that African Americans even attended the movies, because she never saw them enter or leave. One day she just happened to turn around in her seat and she saw all the kids in the balcony. The African Americans had to sit in the balcony at the movies, and entered through a side door. Nana lived in a small mill town called Milstead. No African Americans families lived in the same part of Milstead as she did. Highway 20 ran through the small town and the blacks lived on the left side of the road and the whites lived on the right.

Although, there were more events that happened in Conyers during that time there are too many to talk about. She made friends with the girls in her class. She loves to look back and remember the girls, because she stood tall and did not avoid the girls, but made them feel welcome. This was a hard time in her childhood and strongly stands out in her memory.