Grace McKinley walking her daughter, Linda Gail McKinley, to Fehr Elementary School on Sept. 9, 1957.
Tony Gonzalez at WPLN is covering the school district’s celebration of the first graders who desegregated Nashville’s public schools in 1957-58. It’s so good. And, if you want a happy cry, this is the story for it.
In several moments, those former students were escorted by their parents — now pushing into their 90s — and still holding hands, as they had so many decades before.Marvin Williams Moore fought back tears while being escorted to the front by his mother, Maude, during a celebration of The Nashville 16.
Lajuanda Street Harley, who attended Glenn Elementary in East Nashville, said the parents deserve the credit, and she held a history book that clearly shows her father, more than 6 feet tall, leading her through a mass of people with protest signs.
“I was a 6-year-old being led where I was led,” she said. “I was only holding on to the hand, but it was my parents, who were young people back then. They were in their 20s. They were the millennials of today … it’s always the young people.”
They brought their parents! And made sure their parents got credit. And then Lajuanda Harley draws a straight line from the brave activism of her parents and their peers and the activism of kids today.
What is there left for me to do? Pass me a Kleenex and let’s just be happy about this together.
