Audio
Karim Abdullah and Phillip Hill
From the Collection: Pain and Promise: Remembering the Fight for School IntegrationIn this recording, Phillip Hill interviews his friend and co-worker Karim Abdullah about his childhood in Memphis. Karim recalls his “case study” class, a high-IQ group of Black students that were kept together from 7th grade to 12th grade to measure Black intelligence by the state of Tennessee. Karim reflects on how his exemption from integration represented a complex kind of racism, whereby he and his classmates were insulated and insulted at the same time.