FLORENCE STITH-JACKSON: I grew up on a farm because that is farming country.

One morning I went into school and my teachers, one of my teachers, gave me an application to go to Brunswick High School, which was the white high school at the time.

She thought it would be a good idea if I went, and she told me to go home and talk to my parents about it, which I did.

My parents were not excited about me transferring, but I explained that it would be a good experience for me.

I knew they had newer books than what we had, and so I just wanted to, you know, to take advantage of those things.

My mother said if I filled out the application, she would sign it.

And we got a letter, I guess through the mail, saying that I had been selected.

During that summer, in preparation for going to Brunswick, we had a series of meetings at Saint Paul's College with the NAACP.

They told us what to expect and ran us through some activities and scenarios that we could probably run into during the course of our time there.

I can remember one time when I had gotten a new outfit for school.

And back then, getting a new outfit was really a major event because my parents really didn't have a lot of extra money.

So in order to get me a new outfit, they put it on what they call “layaway,” and it was a blue pleated skirt.

I'll never forget it because I loved it.

Pleated skirt, and it was- that was kind of a dark blue and then it was a baby blue blouse that my mother got me to go with it.

It was really cute.

And I wore it to school the first day and somebody threw ink on it.

And I didn't- And they threw it on the back of me, so I didn't know that it had happened until I ran into another Black kid, and they wanted to know why I had... How Id got ink on the back of my outfit.

And I didn't know what they were talking about.

So I went to the bathroom and I looked and there was, big ink spot on the back of my shirt and my skirt.

And of course it was ruined.

I couldn't- My mother couldn't get it out, and so I couldn't wear that back to school.

It was worth it to me, because in my mind, I was clearing the path for somebody else.

Part of why I decided to participate in going to Brunswick High School, was because I knew that I would be a good example of a good student, and that that would be something that the younger people coming behind me wouldn't have to do if I did it.