- Education has been a building block for the Midland community.

Although, in our city's infancy, we have experienced numerous challenges due to segregation.

We're talking determination, the fight to ensure quality education for our children has remained in the forefront.

This is Midland, our city, our stories.

The commitment of those in our minority community that have called Midland home made them refuse to settle.

They have continued to fight and seek ways, although it brought friction for equality for our children's education and future.

It was the right thing to do to move towards solutions that would benefit all of our citizens.

This has not been perfect, not by a long shot, but the goal was and is to provide the best quality education for our children.

Let's have a seat.

- So, after my great grandparents had lived in the dugout and had a couple of children, they had a home in Midland and it was downtown Midland where what we called the twin towers, where the Wells Fargo building and was, and that house had five water wells around it and a water wheel.

And, they were one of the first homes to have hydroelectricity in Midland.

Well, that home was moved to where Midland High School is now.

And, Calden Junior High was built on that land.

And, then Calden Junior High, the Midland independent school district went to my granddad at that point, Baum Calden, and asked if they could move Calden Junior High and, or build Calden Junior High, move the house to Midland High School, So, that's what they did.

Later on, Calden Junior High, they came back, 'cause my grandparents still owned that land.

And, they came back and said, Baum, can we sell this land?

And, because we need to build another high school and granddad said, yes, you can sell the land as long as it does go for another high school.

And, that's how Lee High School was built.

- I grew up on south end street, across the street from my good friend Tevas Herd, who lived in the house across.

We would play in the dirt street.

It didn't have...

It wasn't paved at the time.

And, we would get our cowboy boots on and shoot at the trains that were passing by down on industrial, what is now industrial.

That was a very nice neighborhood in those days, right?

About a block from West Elementary where everybody went to school for elementary.

I went to Miss Thompson's first grade, because my mother wanted me to be in school when I was six and I turned six on September 5th, and September 1st was the cutoff.

So, she put me in the private school where I could take first grade.

And, then when I got to West Elementary, they promoted me to second grade when I got there, and I was in at West Elementary, and then we moved to North Elementary.

North Elementary and is across the street, or just about, where Concho is now, the Concho or Permian... what are they now?

Conoco Phillips today, Concho at the time.

It's right there in that area.

And, that's where we went to junior high until we got to Sam Houston Elementary.

Back then, Midland began to boom with the Sprayberry boom in the 50s, the first real finding of oil out here in this area.

And, people flocked to Midland.

In fact, my future husband came at that time.

He was born in Duluth, Minnesota, but he came to Middleland during the 50s, after he was in Korean War, because that's when all the young people were coming.

George HW Bush, our president, came here at that time.

And, they were building an...

This will come as a surprise to everybody, but we were building an elementary school a year back then.

We had bond issues all the time to build these elementary schools.

And, that's where I went to school.

- Growing up, I went to the public school system for about a year and realized that being disabled in schools was not quite good back then.

The kids really did not understand why I was in a chair and why I couldn't walk.

So, then I went to the Cerebral Palsy Center, which is now called the children's rehab center.

And, I went and I went to school there for five and a half years.

I say five and a half, because at five and a half years, I was mainstreamed into the public school system.

They decided it's time that we bring disabled individuals into the school system.

- African American educators were excellent instructors.

What people forget is the facilities and equipment may have been inferior, but those teachers took what they had and produced excellence.

They talked with a commitment that, now, you look back on it, is indescribable - A Mexican or a Black person kid, when they were in junior high, they went to junior high and you graduated from that, and then you go into high school.

Well, they separated the Whites over there that went to high school and the Negros and the Mexicans, they went to barracks.

In fact, I can show you the buildings down there and that's where they went.

They separate 'em.

- When I got to Midland, I was about six years old and I attended a Carver School.

And, it was part elementary at that time.

Well, I remember being really frightened actually, because I wasn't used to as many children being in a classroom.

And, the children were more boisterous than the children I remember in east Texas.

And, of course, we're coming from the country as they call it, they kind of teased us a lot for being country.

When we were going to school, there was no bus picking us up.

So, we walked to school and we walked from Mineola all the way to cross Highway 80.

And, sometimes the train was there.

And, we didn't know how long it would be there.

So, we would look both ways, and then we would crawl under, and everybody would say, rushing everybody through, come on, come on.

And, every now and then, someone would yell out, it's gonna move, it's gonna move.

But, we were trying to get across so we wouldn't be late for school.

- One of the things that helped me become successful educationaly, if there is such a word, or through the education system in Midland is the fact that my parents pushed us to get an education.

And, the fact that I went to segregated schools in Midland actually helped me, because the teachers at Bunche Elementary School, where I went, and Carver Junior Senior High School, saw to it that every child was getting an education.

My father taught science seventh and eighth grade at Carver.

I had my father for a science teacher.

My father was not the easiest teacher I've ever had.

And, I thought he was being harder on me, because I was his son.

He wasn't.

He was hard on everybody, because my father grew up in Southern Louisiana where things were not always easy.

And, I think he wanted to make sure that the Black kids he taught would learn something that they could use that would help them later on in life.

- Everything wasn't a bed of roses, I can assure you.

There were valleys and plateaus, but the important thing as a result of that initiative on the part of community to establish single member districts is this, it afforded individuals who otherwise would not be able to run for school board with an outlawed system the opportunity to participate in the process.

- My mother was very involved in the education process in Midland.

She and a group of interveners sued the Midland School Board to force integration of our public schools, so that all children have equal access to opportunity to learn.

That was part of her legacy.

There is a high school named after my mother.

- They were insistent that Black students excel, because given the discriminatory practices, the Jim Crow and racism of the day, they instilled in students the fact that they had only one choice and that was to excel.

- I loved the Cluster system.

And, let me tell you why.

I saw children come from Bernard, Fanon, they came to South.

Fanon, South, all of the sixth grade schools on the south side on purpose, because people said we don't want our young children going to the south side.

The children said to us, we got the best education on the south side of town, because you guys weren't afraid of our parents.

I got so tickled when they said that.

- As a result, we got a cross section of ideas and concepts, though, in many instances, there was disagreement, but we certainly did work to come to workable compromises that resulted in improved facilities, enhanced academic performance.

And, that's still an issue today, but I feel very good that it opened up the avenues for other people, other individuals to participate.

- My son is part of, was in the Cluster system, fifth grade, started fifth grade.

He wanted to know, mama, how will I know who to meet?

I said, you look out across all of those kids and you find the ones who look as scared as you feel.

I said, you know all the Black kids, go get to know the White kids.

Well, they are still friends.

They are very close and it's been, what, 40 something years that they've been together.

And, they're still close.

- Well, as I remember, the hardest thing was trying to get them to participate ain the different activities and seemed like the announcements would be made, but they didn't consider those announcements meant them.

So, they would not participate that.

The, now, athletics, I don't know anything about that, but the programs or the other activities in the school, I remember once a young lady wanted, I was a counselor, so the young lady wanted me to change her class, because she was the only one in an honors class.

And, she wanted to come out of this honors class and go into one of the regular classes where the other kids were.

So, my comment to that was, if your mother comes down here and tells me, she wants you out, I'll take you out.

But, other than that, I won't take you out of that class.

She was doing real well in the class.

So, we ended up, she stayed in the class, but I remember, as a counselor, I tried to get them to prepare for college.

And, one of the ladies that was... Had very good grades and I called her in, and I told her, I said, if you keep your grades up, I'll try to help you get a scholarship.

That was when we had the local giving scholarships.

And, she told me, you're trying to make me White.

Well, you know what?

How do you take that?

I'm not trying to make her White, I just thought she could go to college, but was really hard to get them to participate in things.

But, my daughter was a cheerleader, but none of the other girls, they could have been cheerleaders too, but they would not go out and participate.

They didn't wanna be in the honors classes.

They didn't want to participate in other things.

So, they were afraid to, they'd lose their friends.

- What is on the inside of the kid?

And, their parents were as apprehensive, all of them, the Black, the Brown the White parents were very apprehensive about their children getting on that bus and going across town.

And, let me tell you what, one of... That's one of the very best things that happened in the school district, because the children had a support system.

They could go any place in Midland and they felt safe, because if they went to...

Came to the Peas neighborhood, they knew the Peas' parents.

When they came to the south side, the family get...

They knew one another.

They supported one, even when they split, 'cause ninth grade is where they had to declare whether they wanted to leave Midland High School.

- I spent 33 years on the board, but in the course of working with other persons in the community, we were able to exact particular change in Midland.

- And, I saw the town come together like this, because those young people, oh, my son was eight.

They're 56, 57, 58, 59, but some of 'em moved, but they are still here, and they know one another, and they liked one another, and still support each other.

And, that Cluster system, I tell folk all the time, it brought the rich, the poor, everybody together.

- I've always been so blessed to have just a group of parents and students that loved me and loved the, even when I was disciplining them, they loved me.

And, they, their parents loved me.

And, their parents would say, get 'em, Miss McAfee, get 'em.

It was Ms. Walker at the time, get 'em.

You got our support, go, you know?

And, so I've really had a fabulous career with some wonderful pluses.

- And, Midland takes care of its own.

There's a lot of good people here who will give of their time and resources to help those that are less fortunate.

And, that's one of the things I love about Midland.

Now, I'll admit Midland's not the prettiest place, but it has the friendliest people.

- Well, in answer to the question that so many people ask me daily, what are we still doing in Midland?

And, I absolutely love my husband and the fact that he is just so passionate about speaking out and helping the marginalized people.

And, we definitely need that in our society.

We definitely need that.

And, I'm so proud of him that he just, he'll come in.

And, I mean, we're both retired, so he'll start getting dressed.

And, I say, well, where are you going?

He'll say I'm going to the school board meeting.

And, I'm just like, okay.

It's sort of like going to a football game and you don't know anybody that's playing or something, it's sort of like.

But, he is so passionate about speaking out, and speaking up, and being for the person that is not...

Doesn't have enough courage to or doesn't feel like that they can say the right words to make a difference.

And, I mean, if it is something that is going on in Midland, Texas, John McAfee is on it, gonna be there.

- Some of the things that I've seen that have helped Midland progress has to do with education.

And, as we all know, education is the multiplier.

And, so in the early 80s, Midland was going through a downturn, and Gladys Abel, George Abel's wife, decided to do a scholarship for all of the graduating seniors from Midland High School and Lee High School to be able to go to Midland College debt free.

And, so that scholarship was begun by the Abel Hanger Foundation.

And, it continues today.

And, other foundations have stood up and participated in that now.

And, it just shows how important this community stresses education.

And, there's a lot of young people from different ethnicities who have really made it in the sports arena.

And, you hear their name in national football teams and in baseball teams.

And, so that's also a legacy of Midland, is the sports.

- I personally take pride in knowing that I had a contribution to make, as it relates to upgrading our elementary schools to the standard of the most recently built elementary school, adding additions to our secondary schools, both middle school and high school, making sure that, as best we could, provide equipment and facilities that would produce, result in the production of academically sound students.

- My mom had always told me, son, when you dress dress for success.

And, I ingrained it into myself.

So, the entire time I was in terror, I wore a coat and tie every single day.

When I came here, it was not gonna be in a different here.

However, I did find out that when I went to a principal meeting, half the guys had on shirts, and blue jeans, and cowboy boots, but that didn't change me, because I knew that the students I was working with needed someone to be an example or to look up, look forward to reaching to, like I did when I was growing up, 'cause I grew up want to be just like those teachers that I had in my classroom.

If you don't have anyone to emulate, or look forward to, or reason to think that you can be in that particular, particular position, and look in that particular way, then they're not gonna try as hard.

And, I also believed in getting out and mixing, mingling with the children.

I went into every classroom.

I taught different classes.

I'd go into a classroom just tell the teacher go take a break, because I'm in elementary school.

So, I could teach every subject there.

I had a BS in elementary, along with my history, but I also had a master's in the elementary education.

And, I had also gotten a doctorate in SCI, which was supervision, curriculum, and instruction.

So, I'd studied the different people on effective teaching teaching methods and teaching presentation from the likes of Madeline Hunter, and I think it's James Bryan, James Connor Bryan, from Harvard, but they always suggested an identification with the kids.

If you want to...

The best you you can get outta kids is when they feel that they can come to you, they feel that you are one of them, but I not only want it to be one of them, but I wanted them to be one of me or like me.

- So, that's my parents' legacy, I think, is improving the healthcare system, improving the educational system, in Midland, and the legacy that I hope that I and my wife leave, is bringing attention to those less fortunate, the homeless, so that they can receive the resources they need to become productive citizens of Midland - Naming the school after Barbara B Yarborough is quite humbling.

It's humbling.

And, it is a tribute to my children, their parents, and God.

I tell you, God put us all together, because I tell the...

I told them, I said, had it not been for God putting me there, putting you in that classroom with me, and your parents trusting me with their most prize possession, you, it would not have happened, because I was having my pity party, and, Lord, how you know I don't wanna be at this school.

I wanna be over there with Peas, the blue or Black kids need me.

And, the voice said to me, I said you are to work with people, scared me to pieces at room 109 at South Elementary, because I knew the custodians had gone home.

And, I was just walking and praying over my desk, blessing for the next day.

And, that voice came out in that room.

And, I shut my mouth, and I've been on my job ever since, because I found out something, I remember back to what my uncle said, you are always entertaining God's angels.

Teaching school is a ministry, because you are working with the people who are gonna take care of you when you can't clean your own self, you can't brush your teeth, comb your hair, and clean your behind.

Guess what?

They are there.

I've had them to take care of me.

And, this is a ministry.

So, since you have them in there, you're supposed to give them your very best, your very best, because they are God's angels.

- What education teaches us is that we are the sum total of all of our experiences.

If it is true that children are the future, every effort must be made to guarantee that that future will be bright.

We must continue to pour into every student as if they are our own child, and encourage them, especially when things get tough to stick with their education.

The Cluster system was meant to allow students of all races to acquire an excellent education by utilizing equal resources.

There are pros and cons to everything and the Cluster system is no different, but what it did make room for was for all students, regardless of race, to interact and learn from each other.

We'd love to hear from you and know about your story.

I'm Michael Williams.

Thank you for joining us as we continue this important conversation on diversity, Midland, our city, our stories.

Good night.

(gentle music) - I do think that we have different cultures around the city that we don't know about.

And, I think it's our duty to want to learn more about it.

- I'd like to see something in Midland like a parade and maybe a band with Midland High or Legacy high, and lots and lots of floats.