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James Allen Phares and Charlie Garrott

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


In this recording, friends of over fifty years James Allen Phares and Charlie Garrott recall their childhood in Jackson, MS. Charlie remembers the first signs of desegregation coming in the early 1960s, when Black teachers appeared in his elementary school. Both James and Charlie were bused to majority-Black schools in Jackson when the immediate integration of schools was ordered. James remembers being out of school for a month while preparations were made.

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