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Johnson / Graduation

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Interviewer: What made you feel like the school wasn’t ready for you to walk across the stage? Johnson: I think it’s a given that there was an element there in command who was not ready for me to even make it to that point. I think this was a thing that we overlook. We give lip service to all this stuff, but the reality is there are those who feel like you’re never ready for that. It’s unfortunate that they are in the decision-making slots, but again, to avoid any kind of unrest or create something, the thing I wanted to do was get the degree. Of course, the people who I would want to know about it and that was the big thing. Not necessarily the show part of it. It’s the reason why I could go along with that kind of idea because I didn’t want to put some other kind of roadblock for those to come. That was my thinking on that.

Interview Interview with James E. Johnson
Subjects Race Relations › Black-White Race Relations
Discrimination or Segregation › Discrimination or Segregation at School
Education › Higher Education
Education › Education and Integration › Resistance to School Integration
Historic Periods › Mid-1960s [Exact Date Unknown]
Tags Texas A&M University
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Interview date 2015-07-21
Interview source CRBB Summer 2015
Interviewees Johnson, James E.
Interviewers Acuña-Gurrola, Moisés
Bynum, Katherine
Locations Bryan/College Station, TX
Duration 00:01:53
Citation "Graduation ," from James E. Johnson oral history interview with Moisés Acuña-Gurrola and Katherine Bynum,  July 21, 2015, Prairie View, TX , Civil Rights in Black and Brown Interview Database, https://crbb.tcu.edu/clips/711/graduation, accessed March 18, 2024