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Oral History Interview with Dorothy Choice Pt 1
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Oloye Adeyemon: Clarendon County, South Carolina. School Desegregation, Segregation Interviews. Interview Six, Mrs. Dorothy Choice. Conducted on July 12, 2001. In the home of Mr. Steve and Mrs. Beth Phillips in Summerton, South Carolina. Interviewee: Mrs. Dorothy Choice. Interviewer: Oloye Adeyemon, International Park Service. These interviews are made possible through the Brown vs. Board Oral History Research Project, funded for the summer of 2001, as a part of the Brown vs. Board National Historic Site Oral History Project. Ms. Choice, what is your full name?
Dorothy Choice: My full name is Dorothy Mae Pringle Choice.
Oloye Adeyemon: Your maiden name is Pringle?
Dorothy Choice: That’s right.
Oloye Adeyemon: And where were you born?
Dorothy Choice: I was born in Sumter County, a little place called Wedgefield, South Carolina.
Oloye Adeyemon: Sumter County is the next county, isn’t it?
Dorothy Choice: [Unintelligible 01:21]
Oloye Adeyemon: How far is your hometown from Sumter?
Dorothy Choice: Twenty-seven-and-a-half miles.
Oloye Adeyemon: What year were you born? What’s your birth year?
Dorothy Choice: 4/20/25.
Oloye Adeyemon: And what is your occupation?
Dorothy Choice: I’m retired from education.
Oloye Adeyemon: You were a schoolteacher?
Dorothy Choice: Teaching and administration.
Oloye Adeyemon: You were a principal?
Dorothy Choice: No. I was a supervisor for special services.
Oloye Adeyemon: In the Sumter School District?
Dorothy Choice: In Clarendon School District.
Oloye Adeyemon: And before that you taught what subject?
Dorothy Choice: I taught French and English reading.
Oloye Adeyemon: French, English.
Dorothy Choice: [Unintelligible 02:01].
Oloye Adeyemon: Where did you go to school, after you graduated from high school?
Dorothy Choice: I attended Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina.
Oloye Adeyemon: What year was that?
Dorothy Choice: 1945.
Oloye Adeyemon: And what did you major in?
Dorothy Choice: French and English. My major is French and English.
Oloye Adeyemon: You were born in Sumter County.
Dorothy Choice: Right.
Oloye Adeyemon: And you went through school in Sumter County?
Dorothy Choice: I did.
Oloye Adeyemon: Were the conditions in Sumter County similar to the educational system and segregation system similar to the school system in Clarendon County during the years that you were in school?
Dorothy Choice: I think it was a little different to the situation they had here in Clarendon County. Because we didn’t have materials to work with and our professor, our teachers [unintelligible 03:01]. And I think that’s a plus for us graduating from a small school.
Oloye Adeyemon: Why was it different? What was the reason that you had more supplies? It seems like you’re saying the teachers had a little more training. Is that correct?
Dorothy Choice: That’s, to me, to me, yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: Why is that?
Dorothy Choice: Because I was inspired from that teacher to pursue a degree in French because of her presentations and her preparation.
Oloye Adeyemon: She taught French, herself?
Dorothy Choice: Yes, yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: Now was she required to know how to teach French, or was she just a person who taught in the school system, and knew French [unintelligible 03:45].
Dorothy Choice: She was trained to do it.
Oloye Adeyemon: Did the school system require that?
Dorothy Choice: No, not at that time.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, it wasn’t so much that the school district was providing, uh, more in the education. It was that the teachers were qualified to do more.
Dorothy Choice: I think they were qualified to do more. And they wanted to, I think.
Oloye Adeyemon: Why? Why did, uh, was it that Sumter’s teachers were able to pursue better training? Or was it that teachers were attracted to Sumter?
Dorothy Choice: I think they were attracted there, and then my teachers were local teachers from a rural area. They had gone on to further their education, and they were interested in the students that were there.
Oloye Adeyemon: Why do you think maybe that that didn’t happen in Clarendon County the same way?
Dorothy Choice: I can’t, uh, rightfully say how it happened here, really. Whether they had the interest. Whether their visions were the same as, you know, for students and their education or not.
Oloye Adeyemon: Do you think it would have made a difference in the way the teachers were supported by the school district in Sumter County and the way they were supported by school district in Clarendon?
Dorothy Choice: It has to do with the administration, and it has to do with areas sometimes. Whether you get full support, whether you, um, plan and present the same way.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, you definitely feel that the opportunities in education for blacks in Clarendon County were not as great here?
Dorothy Choice: I don’t think they were as great as they were in Sumter County.
Oloye Adeyemon: And it wasn’t the students’ fault.
Dorothy Choice: No, it’s not.
Oloye Adeyemon: It wasn’t the teachers’ fault?
Dorothy Choice: Some of it was teachers.
Oloye Adeyemon: In what way?
Dorothy Choice: I think, um, sometimes we have to go beyond our-our surroundings. You’re not educating students in the same environment always, and sometimes we have to see—the children have the potentials. The creativity is there, also. And sometimes the teachers will have to prepare themselves to meet the needs of those students. And it doesn’t always happen.
Oloye Adeyemon: Whether-whether the school system supports it or not.
Dorothy Choice: Whether the school system supports it or not. Sometimes you have to get supplies yourself. If you were interested in evaluating what you do, and the progress of your students, there’s so much the teacher has to do, also.
Oloye Adeyemon: Was there anything that happened when you were in college that inspired you? Uh, and-and-and, if so, what was it in college that inspired you?
Dorothy Choice: In college, my first year I lived in a dorm, and the second year, um, the president-the ex-president’s wife wanted me to live with her because she said if I had the qualities, and [unintelligible 06:41] the moral character my mother had, then she wanted me in her home. My mother finished from Morris College earlier.
Oloye Adeyemon: Your mother what—finished from what college?
Dorothy Choice: Morris College in Sumter, South Carolina.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, you did not go to the same college that your mother went to.
Dorothy Choice: No, I didn’t.
Oloye Adeyemon: But you had the same instructor that your mom had.
Dorothy Choice: Not the same instructor. The same president’s wife.
Oloye Adeyemon: The same president ’s wife.
Dorothy Choice: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: She was the president’s wife at—
Dorothy Choice: At Morris, when my mother was there.
Oloye Adeyemon: And then her husband moved.
Dorothy Choice: To Columbia, South Carolina. And when she found—in fact, my mother asked me to go speak to her. And I was reluctant about that because she had this standoff attitude I thought. But again, I gained enough courage one day to go up to her and say, “Miss Thompson, I’m Rachel Galloway’s daughter.” And she said, “What? Then you comin’ with me. You’re going to live with me.” And I said, oh, no, I cannot go this year because they’re paying my full tuition to live on campus. After that year [unintelligible 07:42].
Oloye Adeyemon: So you were inspired by your teachers while in elementary school and high school?
Dorothy Choice: Right.
Oloye Adeyemon: And then you continued to be inspired by your teachers?
Dorothy Choice: Also, with my professor, the principal of that school.
Oloye Adeyemon: In high school?
Dorothy Choice: In elementary.
Oloye Adeyemon: In elementary.
Dorothy Choice: And we thought he could do everything for us.
Oloye Adeyemon: What was his name?
Dorothy Choice: Professor DeLaine.
Oloye Adeyemon: What was –
Dorothy Choice: Frank DeLaine.
Oloye Adeyemon: How do you spell that?
Dorothy Choice: D-E-L-A-I-N.
Oloye Adeyemon: Was he related to the Delaneys in Clarendon County?
Dorothy Choice: No, he was not related to the Delaneys here.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, what was it that the principal did to inspire you so much?
Dorothy Choice: The principal had such an interest in-in each student.
Oloye Adeyemon: Each and every one?
Dorothy Choice: Yes, yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: It didn’t matter what the economic background of the student was?
Dorothy Choice: It didn’t matter to him. He was there to provide an education. That [unintelligible 08:36] to me. He was interested in every child that the parents sent him.
Oloye Adeyemon: No matter what.
Dorothy Choice: Right.
Oloye Adeyemon: So that had to affect the teacher’s attitude.
Dorothy Choice: Right. They were excellent teachers, I would say, as far as academics concerned, as far as cultural development was concerned.
Oloye Adeyemon: The, you know, when—during the years when you were in school, did you have a lot of exposure to the white schools and what was goin’ on?
Dorothy Choice: No, we did not have a lot of exposure to white schools. But we had whites come in the schools to teach the Bible. And whites came to our homes to teach us the Bible. They were interested in the community [unintelligible 09:27]. If they would bring a child along, that’s the only interaction we had.
Oloye Adeyemon: They were coming into your homes and into your schools, were they teachers from the schools?
Dorothy Choice: No, they were just Bible scholars.
Oloye Adeyemon: But I’m saying, in terms of the white school system, how much did you know about it?
Dorothy Choice: We didn’t know. I didn’t know very much about it.
Oloye Adeyemon: Were you aware of any difference in the white school system, the white school system in Sumter County?
Dorothy Choice: We-we just did not have that interaction with those schools. So we can’t tell how much we were behind.
Oloye Adeyemon: Was there any difference in the buildings that the schools were in?
Dorothy Choice: Yes. They were brick.
Oloye Adeyemon: They were brick?
Dorothy Choice: Yes, they were brick. [Crosstalk]
Oloye Adeyemon: Both schools? The Black schools and the white schools?
Dorothy Choice: No. We had a whole, you know, here.
Oloye Adeyemon: With Fran10:22?
Dorothy Choice: Fran yeah, yeah.
Oloye Adeyemon: And did you—
Dorothy Choice: Not very much style to it. Just a [unintelligible 10:31] house and the rooms and, yeah.
Oloye Adeyemon: Did children in the school that you attended have to walk far to go to school?
Dorothy Choice: We walked a mile. But some had to walk far.
Oloye Adeyemon: Was a bus provided for those?
Dorothy Choice: No, no bus was provided.
Oloye Adeyemon: Did white schools have to sometimes go far to go to school?
Dorothy Choice: Yes, they did. Yes, they did.
Oloye Adeyemon: Did they have buses?
Dorothy Choice: They had buses and uh, maybe one bus [unintelligible 10:56].
Oloye Adeyemon: That they were able to ride if they wanted to.
Dorothy Choice: Yes, they were able to ride.
Oloye Adeyemon: Before we, uh, turn our attention to Sumter County, uh, were there any, uh, challenges to segregated schools in Sumter that occurred around the time that the segregated system in Clarendon County started being challenged?
Dorothy Choice: I think there were some challenges.
Oloye Adeyemon: Do you [crosstalk 11:22].
Dorothy Choice: The attention was directed mostly to Clarendon County.
Oloye Adeyemon: So even the people in Sumter then, their attention was on Clarendon, too?
Dorothy Choice: Clarendon County, yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: Was the NAACP active in Sumter County?
Dorothy Choice: The NAACP was very active.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, it wasn’t that there weren’t issues and concerns in Clarendon—in Sumter County but a lot of attention was paid to-to Clarendon County.
Dorothy Choice: They had issues and concerns about integrating the counters, you know, the lunch counters and what not.
Oloye Adeyemon: Was that—was that in the ’40s or did that come later?
Dorothy Choice: I think later.
Oloye Adeyemon: Maybe later.
Dorothy Choice: Yeah, maybe later.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, you were quite proud of the education you received in the Sumter schools.
Dorothy Choice: Right.
Oloye Adeyemon: And then when you went on to college, and you were satisfied with the education you received. And what made you pick—
Dorothy Choice: I had no problems after that. You know, it was some concern about graduating from a small school, a rural school, and going to Benedict College, you know. But I had no problems.
Oloye Adeyemon: What was it that caused you to choose French?
Dorothy Choice: I was inspired by my teacher.
Oloye Adeyemon: Now this teacher—
Dorothy Choice: It was fascinating. It was something different. You know, we were taught Latin also in that same school.
Oloye Adeyemon: In high school?
Dorothy Choice: Yes, small. Well, when she came, she had something different and I was interested in that.
Oloye Adeyemon: Now the person that taught you Latin, were they just the Latin teacher, or did they teach other things to you? One teacher for one subject?
Dorothy Choice: Yes, I think he taught just the Latin. That was the principal.
Oloye Adeyemon: So that was something he knew, and because he was dedicated, he, you know, he was the principal.
Dorothy Choice: I don't think he studied it [unintelligible 13:18], but he taught us, yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: He just wanted you to be exposed.
Dorothy Choice: Right.
Oloye Adeyemon: Do you have music instruction?
Dorothy Choice: Choir. Yeah, we sang.
Oloye Adeyemon: [Fading voice 13:33]
Oloye Adeyemon: Did you have sports?
Dorothy Choice: Yes, I played basketball.
Oloye Adeyemon: Did you?
Dorothy Choice: [Unintelligible13:41], yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: Now, did they have teams that would play other schools?
Dorothy Choice: We traveled, and we were so happy to do it.
Oloye Adeyemon: But you didn’t travel and play Clarendon because they didn’t have teams.
Dorothy Choice: We didn’t go very far, you know.
Oloye Adeyemon: Just within the county.
Dorothy Choice: Yeah, that’s right. That’s how we [unintelligible 13:56].
Oloye Adeyemon: Early on—when did you start school? What year did you start school? What year did you begin your elementary school about?
Dorothy Choice: Oh. I was perhaps six or seven years old.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, what would that be, 19-mid-30s?
Dorothy Choice: Yeah.
Oloye Adeyemon: At the time that you started school, uh, what-what occupation was your parent in? Both of them.
Dorothy Choice: Um, mother was a seamstress. She supported dad, but she didn’t do very much work out there because that was supplemental income for us.
Oloye Adeyemon: Did they own land?
Dorothy Choice: No.
Oloye Adeyemon: They rented?
Dorothy Choice: Right, yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: Did they have to share the property?
Dorothy Choice: Yes, they did.
Oloye Adeyemon: Were there times you had to help in the field and miss classes?
Dorothy Choice: Oh, no. No, no. We didn’t miss classes, no.
Oloye Adeyemon: There were some children, though, that had to leave school in order to help [crosstalk 15:01].
Dorothy Choice: That had to stay home from school, yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: Harvest a crop—picking cotton things right there?
Dorothy Choice: We did that after school. Now, we may have, uh, maybe they would ask us to come a half day, when they were harvesting the potatoes. And we had to pick them up and get them to bags 15:17.
Oloye Adeyemon: How many brothers and sisters did you have?
Dorothy Choice: There were 10 of us. [Unintelligible 15:23]?
Oloye Adeyemon: What were your father’s and mother’s names?
Dorothy Choice: My father was Thomas McLeod Pringle. My mother maiden name? My mother was Rachel Galloway. She’s from Clarendon County. Rachel Galloway Pringle.
Oloye Adeyemon: And what were your brothers’ and sisters’ names?
Dorothy Choice: Oldest brother was Johnny Pringle, my sister Bernice Pringle, Thomas Pringle, Dorothy Pringle, Sarah Pringle, Claris Pringle, Brad Pringle, Louis and Lucy are twins, and Thelma.
Oloye Adeyemon: Did all your, um, brothers and sisters remain in the Sumter County schools?
Dorothy Choice: Yes. Yes, until they finished high school. And then the boys went into—they all went to the military.
Oloye Adeyemon: They all went to the military.
Dorothy Choice: And they wanted us to go to school.
Oloye Adeyemon: Did all of them end in the same war?
Dorothy Choice: I don't think—I’m not sure.
Oloye Adeyemon: Some of the older ones were in World War II? I was wondering how old the older ones would have been. Or was it the Korean War?
Dorothy Choice: Yes, perhaps he was there. Johnny would have been, um, 82 now.
Oloye Adeyemon: Did they come back to Sumter when they got out of the Army?
Dorothy Choice: No.
Oloye Adeyemon: Where did they go?
Dorothy Choice: They went back to college. Thelma went to went to DC, Washington DC. Philadelphia [unintelligible 17:18].
Oloye Adeyemon: Did your sisters go off after they finished school, or did they stay in Sumter?
Dorothy Choice: They went away. One sister traveled with her husband [unintelligible 17:34] One went to DC. [Unintelligible 17:38].
Oloye Adeyemon: So were there any that remained in Sumter?
Dorothy Choice: Sure. I have two sisters there now in Sumter County.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, do feel good about the education you received? And when you got out of college, did you go teach?
Dorothy Choice: There wasn’t—okay, when I got out, I had no job. There wasn’t anything available in French and English. And, um, I was at home with my parents when I came. Then I got the notice about the job in 1950. I was just out of school.
Oloye Adeyemon: You were just out.
Dorothy Choice: Yeah, but I had no job.
Oloye Adeyemon: So you got a notice from Clarendon?
Dorothy Choice: I had friends here in Clarendon County who called and said there was a vacancy at Scott’s Branch.
Oloye Adeyemon: How did you know the friends in Clarendon?
Dorothy Choice: Geneva was my roommate at Benedict College. And she called me. That’s Beatrice’s sister.
Oloye Adeyemon: Oh, Beatrice Brown.
Dorothy Choice: Brown, yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: They were children of one of the plaintiffs.
Dorothy Choice: Right.
Oloye Adeyemon: So did you know her father was one of the plaintiffs? Did know him?
Dorothy Choice: Yes. After I came her.
Oloye Adeyemon: So you did meet him.
Dorothy Choice: Yes, I meet him.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, this was in 1950.
Dorothy Choice: 1950, when I came here.
Oloye Adeyemon: It wasn’t for French teaching.
Dorothy Choice: No.
Oloye Adeyemon: It was for—
Dorothy Choice: Sixth grade.
Oloye Adeyemon: - sixth grade teacher. But you wanted the job at that time.
Dorothy Choice: Sure, sure.
Oloye Adeyemon: And so you moved to Sumter—Summerton.
Dorothy Choice: I didn’t move here, then. I was still living in Sumter County.
Oloye Adeyemon: But you were teaching here.
Dorothy Choice: I came down and lived with the Browns.
Oloye Adeyemon: Oh, so you were staying here temporarily.
Dorothy Choice: Temporarily.
Oloye Adeyemon: And you actually moved in with the Browns.
Dorothy Choice: With the Browns, yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: Okay, so during 1950, when you came here for your first teaching assignment—
Dorothy Choice: Sure.
Oloye Adeyemon: You lived with the Browns.
Dorothy Choice: I did.
Oloye Adeyemon: And the Browns at that time were already-they were already-they had already the signed the petition by then.
Dorothy Choice: Right.
Oloye Adeyemon: You knew that?
Dorothy Choice: No.
Oloye Adeyemon: You didn’t know they had signed a petition?
Dorothy Choice: No, I knew—I didn’t. I knew it was going on, um, with the school system here, but I didn’t know who had signed.
Oloye Adeyemon: Okay. But you did know about Briggs and Elliott?
Dorothy Choice: Yes, I did.
Oloye Adeyemon: Did you find out after you came that they were petitioners?
Dorothy Choice: We didn’t talk about it. I don't remember them talking about it.
Oloye Adeyemon: Were both the husband and wife petitioners or just the husband?
Dorothy Choice: I think both. I think both were.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, do you think they—do you know—do you have a feeling about why they didn’t tell you about it?
Dorothy Choice: Well, I guess they figured I would find out. They cautioned, you know, cautioned me about what was going on here, but they were limited in this, uh, talking about it.
Oloye Adeyemon: Because they wanted to keep it quiet.
Dorothy Choice: Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, when you came—because it actually hadn’t gone to trial. They were just planning it at that time, is that right?
Dorothy Choice: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: It was ’51, is that right, when it was actually—or was it ’51 when they made the decision?
Dorothy Choice: I think it was ’50, um, let me see, now.
Oloye Adeyemon: Um, what was the experience like teaching in the Clarendon schools for that year? And what—how-how did you—what was that experience like? How did you feel?
Dorothy Choice: I was pretty much on my own, you know. I don’t remember receiving any training as to preparation, you know.
Oloye Adeyemon: From the administration?
Dorothy Choice: From the administration, um, behavioral modification, things like that. Or presenting or evaluating. I didn’t receive that.
Oloye Adeyemon: So you were surprised to find that—did you expect it?
Dorothy Choice: You know, when you don’t know a system—each system is different. And I expected someone to bring me in and say these are the things that we expect of you, you know, as a classroom teacher. And I didn’t get that. And this is how you would be evaluated.
Oloye Adeyemon: But you did the best you could.
Dorothy Choice: I did from what I learned in college or something else.
Oloye Adeyemon: Were—how did the students feel about learning?
Dorothy Choice: The students were—they didn’t react very much. They were kind of quiet students. And even when you presented something, they accepted it. They accepted it. They were not rebellious or inquisitive about things. That’s the way I remember them.
Oloye Adeyemon: So you were teaching sixth grade for that entire year?
Dorothy Choice: Just five months. January through May.
Oloye Adeyemon: Just five months?
Dorothy Choice: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: Now earlier, I interviewed, uh, Germaine 23:20.
Dorothy Choice: Germaine.
Oloye Adeyemon: Who was in Georgia and [unintelligible 23:26].
Dorothy Choice: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: And she was one of your students.
Dorothy Choice: Right. Germaine was one of my students.
Oloye Adeyemon: And you had taught—and she was the child of a petitioner, too. Was it only after you had left the school that you discovered all these people, that you had worked with, so many of them were petitioners and Briggs v. Elliott?
Dorothy Choice: I think after I left—I knew something wasn’t just kosher—because it was too quiet. It was too quiet. The students were not normally that quiet in the classroom. They were not free, seemingly, to be themselves or anything. They were in here, and this is the way the way it’s supposed to be. [Unintelligible 24:16].
Oloye Adeyemon: So is there anything that you can add to that first teaching experience that we haven’t talked about.
Dorothy Choice: Well, yes. When I came down to interview for the job, I was told how to conduct myself with the superintendent who was—
Oloye Adeyemon: Who was the superintendent?
Dorothy Choice: Mr. [unintelligible 24:48] was the superintendent.
Oloye Adeyemon: He was one of the defendants in the trial.
Dorothy Choice: Right. I was told, “Now, when you go over to his home,” that’s where I’ll be interviewed, “be very careful with, yes, sir, with whatever he asks you,” you know. “When he asks you, you know, ‘Were you involved with any NAACP activities,’ you say no, sir.” Well that was true. I had not joined the chapter after I left college.
Oloye Adeyemon: You had been involved at Benedict?
Dorothy Choice: Oh yes, yes, we were involved with the chapters there. And, uh, I had been out here only a few months. So that was the truth. I was not actively involved.
Oloye Adeyemon: So when you went in to see him, what did you say? What did you do?
Dorothy Choice: I told him I was there to apply for the position. I think it was sixth grade teacher. He told me someone had left, and that position was only vacant for so many months. That was fine.
Oloye Adeyemon: Did he question you about were in involved in the NAACP?
Dorothy Choice: Yes, he did.
Oloye Adeyemon: What did you tell him?
Dorothy Choice: I told him no.
Oloye Adeyemon: What did he say?
Dorothy Choice: Well, that pleased him.
Oloye Adeyemon: So if you had said, yes, you wouldn’t have gotten it.
Dorothy Choice: That’s what I was told.
Oloye Adeyemon: Do you know why the prn who had the job before you left?
Dorothy Choice: No. He didn’t tell me.
Oloye Adeyemon: Did you have any other occasion to meet him or hear him?
Dorothy Choice: No, I didn’t hear anything from him. I think he came to the classroom at one time and just looked. He didn’t say anything to me. And I didn’t say anything to him. He looked and, uh, he stood around for a while.
Oloye Adeyemon: You were at Scott’s Branch?
Dorothy Choice: Scott’s Branch Elementary.
Oloye Adeyemon: Elementary school.
Dorothy Choice: Yes. It was in—it wasn’t under the umbrella at the big school.
Oloye Adeyemon: That’s the high school?
Dorothy Choice: It was the little, um, [unintelligible 26:58] buildings, they called them. What we call, um, portable units now. But they had gotten them from blue barriers 27:04.
Oloye Adeyemon: How many students did you have?
Dorothy Choice: I don’t remember very well, maybe 10.
Oloye Adeyemon: How many do you think was in the whole school? Less than 100?
Dorothy Choice: Two hundred, maybe. I don't remember a lot about that office 27:27. They were in the process—they had an interim principal at that time.
Oloye Adeyemon: I’m talking about the-the elementary school, sixth graders.
Dorothy Choice: I don't know.
Oloye Adeyemon: Now, when you left at the end of that semester, what did you do then? Where did you go then?
Dorothy Choice: I went to [unintelligible 27:52]. I lived close by and worked there until I found a position at [unintelligible].
Oloye Adeyemon: Is that where your husband was?
Dorothy Choice: He was from Sumter County. No, he was-he was in the Navy.
Oloye Adeyemon: He was in the Navy.
Dorothy Choice: Yes. Well, we got married after he came out of the Navy.
Oloye Adeyemon: I see.
Dorothy Choice: And he went back to school, um, at Voorhees, um, Junior College. But I was already finished. I had finished by that time. So he was in school, but I went to the next school to work.
Oloye Adeyemon: Do you know where?
Dorothy Choice: Bennettsville, South Carolina. No, North Carolina, to work. French and English.
Oloye Adeyemon: Okay. You said something about the base?
Dorothy Choice: I worked on the base in between.
Oloye Adeyemon: Teaching?
Dorothy Choice: No. No. No, just working.
Oloye Adeyemon: As soon as you left Summerton, you went to the base.
Dorothy Choice: Exactly.
Oloye Adeyemon: And what did you do at the base?
Dorothy Choice: Cafeteria work. Some of everything.
Oloye Adeyemon: Okay. Yes. Because you hadn’t found another teaching position? But then you did, and that was where?
Dorothy Choice: In Bennettsville, South Carolina.
Oloye Adeyemon: How far is that from Summertime?
Dorothy Choice: Ninety miles.
Oloye Adeyemon: Which direction?
Dorothy Choice: North.
Oloye Adeyemon: North.
Dorothy Choice: North.
Oloye Adeyemon: [Unintelligible 29:00].
Dorothy Choice: No, Fayetteville. Mm-hmm. Fayetteville, North Carolina. It’s going in that direction, right.
Oloye Adeyemon: Right. And did you find the conditions in the schools there different than what you had found?
Dorothy Choice: Very different. Um, the facilities, the functional relationship with people, the, um, curriculum, the equipment, and the knowledgeable principal and teachers made it all so different.
Oloye Adeyemon: Was it better?
Dorothy Choice: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: Was it-it was better than what you’d experienced in [unintelligible 29:36]?
Dorothy Choice: Right.
Oloye Adeyemon: How did it compare to what you were used to as a child in Sumter County?
Dorothy Choice: It far exceeded that.
Oloye Adeyemon: It far exceeded Sumter County?
Dorothy Choice: Yes, yes. We were—we were in a rural area. Now in-in the city of Sumter, it was like what I experienced when I went to, uh, [unintelligible 29:53], yeah.
Oloye Adeyemon: And this place that you were in, what’s the name of the place again in South Carolina?
Dorothy Choice: Bennettsville, South Carolina.
Oloye Adeyemon: Bennettsville, South Carolina.
Dorothy Choice: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: And so you enjoyed that period of time?
Dorothy Choice: Oh, yes, oh, yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: How long were you here?
Dorothy Choice: Seven years.
Oloye Adeyemon: And does that make it about 1960 or something like that?
Dorothy Choice: From ’57 to ’65.
Oloye Adeyemon: From ’57 to ’65, okay. What did you do in ’65?
Dorothy Choice: Move here.
Oloye Adeyemon: With your husband?
Dorothy Choice: My husband, yeah, was here. And here, at that time he had finished college.
Oloye Adeyemon: What was he doing?
Dorothy Choice: He was teaching at one of the elementary schools here.
Oloye Adeyemon: Which one?
Dorothy Choice: Spring Hill. It’s closed now.
Oloye Adeyemon: Spring Hill Elementary.
Oloye Adeyemon: That was in Summerton?
Dorothy Choice: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: And where did you teach when you came back?
Dorothy Choice: Scott’s Branch High School.
Oloye Adeyemon: What did you teach?
Dorothy Choice: French and English.
Oloye Adeyemon: So you were able to start teaching French and English?
Dorothy Choice: [Laughing] Yes, I had a TV course.
Oloye Adeyemon: Did you teach—you had a TV course?
Dorothy Choice: In French.
Oloye Adeyemon: That you?
Dorothy Choice: Taught at the high school.
Oloye Adeyemon: You taught it through television.
Dorothy Choice: Yes. I did that and I did—
Oloye Adeyemon: And you did the students, as well.
Dorothy Choice: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: Who was it that listened to your TV instruction?
Dorothy Choice: My students.
Oloye Adeyemon: In the classroom?
Dorothy Choice: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: Were you doing this so you could go to more-more than one school? Is that what it was?
Dorothy Choice: Right. See, what happened, well, you had to teach. Uh, the class was faster. We all were supposed to be doing TV courses. But I found out, I was the only one doing it. You gotta prepare then. I understand our TV course is faster than we are normally accustomed to. But that’s a challenge. So I did that a long time.
Oloye Adeyemon: Now was it your own students who were watching you on TV? Or was it the students at school who didn’t have a French teacher who watched you?
Dorothy Choice: We had a French teacher teaching by television.
Oloye Adeyemon: And that was you?
Dorothy Choice: No, Madame Turney-High. We had a programmed program.
Oloye Adeyemon: I see. And then you used that program on the TV to work with the students.
Dorothy Choice: That’s exactly right. It was incorporated in the curriculum.
Oloye Adeyemon: I see.
Dorothy Choice: Because when I first came here, I was used to that at another school. At the high school in Bennettsville. And, um, my schedule didn’t allow me to do this. So, we eventually got it, uh, programmed through the schedule. Well, she could—my French class could come at the same time she was teaching.
Oloye Adeyemon: I see. I see. So, your—what was your—what grade did your husband teach?
Dorothy Choice: He was in elementary, so it had to be fourth, fifth, sixth, something like that. Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, you both came in ’65. In ’65—
Dorothy Choice: He was here.
Oloye Adeyemon: - he was already here?
Dorothy Choice: Yes, he was here.
Oloye Adeyemon: You were still in Bennettsville.
Dorothy Choice: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: Okay. How long was he here before you came?
Dorothy Choice: Maybe three years.
Oloye Adeyemon: Were you already married at that time?
Dorothy Choice: Oh, sure. I had two sons. That’s one reason why.
Oloye Adeyemon: Did you see each other often during the years you were in Bennettsville, and he was here?
Dorothy Choice: Yes, yes. Yeah, I’d come down sometimes. This is home. This would be home, you know. I’d come down.
Oloye Adeyemon: And the children were with you?
Dorothy Choice: Yes, I had-yes, I had the children with me.
Oloye Adeyemon: And the children were going to the schools, too?
Dorothy Choice: Yes, they were at the same school. Normally, they were supposed to go to school in the area we were in. But since I had to drive up east to the high school, the elementary school was there, too, I could take them out of the district with me.
Oloye Adeyemon: So you really weren’t—your address was Summerton, even though you were teaching in Bennettsville?
Dorothy Choice: No, no. My address was 52 Marshall Street in Bennettsville.
Oloye Adeyemon: Then when you—what was the problem? They weren’t pulling you out of the system if they were living with you, were they?
Dorothy Choice: No, we had an elementary school down west, where I live, and they were supposed to go to elementary.
Oloye Adeyemon: In Bennettsville? They didn’t have to go to the school, the neighborhood school. They were able to go to the same school you were teaching.
Dorothy Choice: Because I was driving, yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: So they weren’t in your class, but they were in the school?
Dorothy Choice: No, no. They were in the-in the elementary.
Oloye Adeyemon: I see. You were teaching in the high school you were teaching in in Bennettsville?
Dorothy Choice: Right, right, right.
Oloye Adeyemon: And how old were they when you were teaching there from ’57-’65?
Dorothy Choice: I put them in school when the youngest one was five, and he was third when he moved here. The oldest one was, uh, fourth grade when he moved here, in Clarendon County. So, it wasn’t just a big change.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, it wasn’t just a big change. Well, let me ask first, when you came back to Clarendon County the second time, did things change?
Dorothy Choice: Well, it was just a, it was—it was somewhat changed, but the school system was so different to the one I had my children in, you know, at Bennettsville. It was a difference, because they had so many opportunities for testing and other programs.
Oloye Adeyemon: In Bennettsville.
Dorothy Choice: Yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: Now when you came back, you noticed changes in Clarendon and the schools between ’50 and ’65. What was the biggest change?
Dorothy Choice: They had a few changes, not very many.
Oloye Adeyemon: What were those?
Dorothy Choice: Um, they had limited, no, not limited equipment. They had perhaps two or three projectors. When that—we—when I was here in ’50, I don’t remember seeing any audiovisual materials.
Oloye Adeyemon: In ’50.
Dorothy Choice: ’50.
Oloye Adeyemon: But you saw some in ’65?
Dorothy Choice: Yes. A little. Okay, it was a library here.
Oloye Adeyemon: And there hadn’t been one before?
Dorothy Choice: I don't think. We did. We did go. Uh, we were outside. There was no program whereby you’d go to the library with your children to help them do research.
Oloye Adeyemon: Which year, ’50 or ’65?
Dorothy Choice: Oh, no, ’65.
Dorothy Choice: Yes, we could get in the library.
Oloye Adeyemon: Now this library was in the school, so it was a public library?
Dorothy Choice: No public library, no. It wasn’t a public library.
Oloye Adeyemon: It was a school library.
Dorothy Choice: School library. But when your children were scheduled to go, the teacher went along with them to help them with the assignments, the research, or whatever you want them to do.
Oloye Adeyemon: Was it pretty well stocked?
Dorothy Choice: No, it was not. It was limited. Sometimes you would have to—if it’s something you wanted your children to do the research on, you had to draw from your own library, you know, to get it done.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, ’65 was the year that, uh, the implementation plan was put into effect for Brown vs. Board of Education, right, here in Clarendon County. The first phase was a—did they call it a, um, freedom of choice? Where they had choice as to what school they went to, first?
Dorothy Choice: It was ’65. It was ’67, wasn’t it? Because when we came in ’65, we didn’t have that choice.
Oloye Adeyemon: So it was still segregated strictly?
Dorothy Choice: Yes. Yes. And I remember my husband preparing the boys, you know, to go over to the integrated school.
Oloye Adeyemon: So you put your children in the integration?
Dorothy Choice: No. Before it happened, they left.
Oloye Adeyemon: Where did they go?
Dorothy Choice: All the while children left.
Oloye Adeyemon: Okay, so you were preparing your children for the day when they were going to the integrated school.
Dorothy Choice: Right, right.
Oloye Adeyemon: Was it-was it that they had to wait until they got to high school to do it?
Dorothy Choice: No, no, no. The next year.
Oloye Adeyemon: Okay, so what you’re saying is that you were preparing them knowing that-knowing it was about to happen.
Dorothy Choice: Right, that’s true.
Oloye Adeyemon: But when the point came, all of the white students had left the system. So, Clarendon County, in 1950, was a school system. Summerton, Clarendon County School District 1, in Clarendon, in Summertime, South Carolina, had been a segregated system in terms of schools. One high school was white, and one high school was black. [Dog barking] But the school district itself had whites and blacks in it. The school district, not the school. I’m saying the school district, Clarendon County 1, had a Black school and a white school.
Dorothy Choice: But no whites were—no, no whites were in the Black schools.
Oloye Adeyemon: No, no, I understand, but I’m saying they had their own schools.
Dorothy Choice: They had their own schools, I understand.
Oloye Adeyemon: That was part of Clarendon County, District 1, and the black schools were under it. So the schools themselves were segregated, but there were both blacks and whites in the school district at that time.
Dorothy Choice: Oh yes, oh yes, I understand.
Oloye Adeyemon: It went from segregated schools to a totally segregated district because when it finally came time for them to fully implement desegregation, every single white left the school district. Where did they go?
Dorothy Choice: At that time we had a private school in place.
Oloye Adeyemon: What was the name of the private school?
Dorothy Choice: Clarendon Hall.
Oloye Adeyemon: And do you know who was the headmaster at that time?
Dorothy Choice: I think Mr. Rowe 39:03 was. I’m not sure.
Oloye Adeyemon: And-and what had-had a Clarendon Hall already existed before that? Was there already—was the school already open? Was it open in order to—for white students to be able to go somewhere other than the public school?
Dorothy Choice: I remember it being open when it was—when the time came to integrate. I don’t remember that school being there with a choice to go to the private school or go to the white school. Maybe it was there.
Oloye Adeyemon: Now, in that situation, weren’t there some whites that were poor that couldn’t go to the private school? Where did they go?
Dorothy Choice: Well, you had a few who came over to the black school, when- when, you had, uh, when you had the white flight, everybody there, you had a few who went to the black school.
Oloye Adeyemon: And what happened? Did they stay in the black school?
Dorothy Choice: Some stayed, and I understand some were pressured out because—
Oloye Adeyemon: But where did they go if they couldn’t afford the private school?
Dorothy Choice: Some moved away. You move in another district, so you move across the line. Sumter County, or maybe Orangeburg County. Or move close to Manning, where you could go to Manning schools in the Clarendon 2 District. You could do that.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, did you find—how did the black students feel—how did the parents feel, who had wanted their children to be in integrated?
Dorothy Choice: I-I-I don’t know if they actually wanted them to be in a white school. I’m not sure if this is what they wanted.
Oloye Adeyemon: What about the ones that had petitioned?
Dorothy Choice: At that time, I believe some of those students were [unintelligible 41:20]
Oloye Adeyemon: I’m speaking about the black children. Did-did many of the black-were many of the black children disappointed when they weren’t able to go to—in our—in the black community disappointed when the opportunity to go to an integrated school didn’t exist?
Dorothy Choice: I think it was [unintelligible 41:37]. I did not hear anybody discuss any dismay or disappointment because couldn’t go to the white school.
Oloye Adeyemon: So, you took it in stride?
Dorothy Choice: Yes, yes.
Oloye Adeyemon: So you really didn’t feel that—did you feel that education was inferior if the student was not able to go to a white school? Did you feel it was an inferior education?
Dorothy Choice: That’s a matter of opinion. It depends on the vision the teachers have, the principal, the administration have, the materials that were there. Now, it is written that it was inferior. For some teachers, it was not.
Oloye Adeyemon: I understand.
Dorothy Choice: For me, I had everything I needed to work there, because—
Description
This interview presents the history of an African American school teacher in the segregated South and discusses the differences between public schools in Sumter and Clarendon County.
Credit
NPS
Date Created
07/12/2001
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