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Erik Townsend and Jeannette Holland

From the Collection: Pain and Promise: Remembering the Fight for School Integration


In this recording, Jeannette Holland speaks with her son Erik Townsend. Jeannette, who was bused to a new high school her junior year, describes the experience of having the serene “bubble” of her childhood broken. The bused students were separated among several schools, and Jeannette remembers the disappointment and pain of not sharing the memories of her teenage years with the people she’d grown up with. At her new school, her grades suffered, and Jeannette recalls feeling completely disempowered by the busing process in Nashville.

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