On Friday, September 16 Faith Holsaert, an alumna of LREI as well as an activist involved in the civil rights movement, came to visit the Fourth Grade. Faith shared many stories including the story of her music teacher at LREI, Charity Bailey. As a student Faith invited Charity, who was black, to come live with her family, who was white, because she thought it was unfair that African Americans were facing discrimination accessing housing close to LREI. Faith also described the day her teacher handed her classmate a coin and told her to go get the newspaper because a very important Supreme Court decision was to be announced. The day was May 17, 1954. Students listened very carefully to her story, thought about it, and then wrote thank you notes. Below are some snippets from those notes.     Sam: “Thank you for coming to LREI. It was a great time meeting you…” Jade: “Thank you for coming and sharing what is important to you…I think it was very kind to lend Charity a place to stay.”   Bailey: “...I loved it when you told us about your music teacher. Also when you told us what the school used to look like.”   Lorenzo: “Thank you for coming to LREI to tell us about your experience at LREI. I am new to this school so I enjoyed learning about my new school, so thank you for that too.”     Suko: “Thank you for coming to LREI and explaining how it was back then in the older days like when blacks weren’t treated fairly.” Gia: “…My last favorite story is the one where you met MLK. I like it because meeting MLK is not something thGia: at you can do everyday. It’s a once in a lifetime chance! Plus he made history! And I have one last question, did you recite the Pledge of Allegiance back then?”   Crosby: “…Another one of my favorite stories was the one with Brown vs. Board of Education.”   Margot: “…It was very interesting when you talked about how different segregation was in the south from other places.”   Miles: “…I loved everything you taught us. One thing I thought was particularly cool was that you fought for civil rights.”   Makeda: “…Thank you for telling us the story. My favorite was when you heard your classmate scream in the hallway because she read the news (Brown v. Board of Ed)….Do you enjoy telling your stories? Because I know that I definitely enjoy listening to them.”   Zen: “…When I first heard about the visitor I was thinking it is going to be boring but when you told your story it got a lot more interesting. It was very meaningful and thoughtful.”   Asher: “…What was the hardest thing for you when black and white people were separated?”   Ezra: “…I liked when you were registering black people to vote…and when you explained how happy you were when Charity moved in with you.” …”I know this isn’t relevant but I was just curious, how did you get to school?”   Alex: “My favorite story you told us was the newspaper one. I liked it because it was when blacks and whites could go to the same school.” Alden: “…I loved it when you told us about Charity and the newspaper story.”   Romy: “…I thought it was so cool that you met Martin Luther King Jr.”   Nate: “Thank you for coming over and telling us about school 60 years ago…I liked when you told us about the March on Washington and meeting Martin Luther King..” Avery: “…I enjoyed all the information you gave us. I took it in very deeply. I didn’t ever think about segregation the way you told me to think about it. First of all I thought, I didn’t know a white person couldn’t sell a house to a black person…Thank you for giving me all of these questions to consider.”   Kieran: “…I like the story about desegregation. I also like the story about Charity moving in with you. It was also interesting to listen about how they (poll workers) lied about lunch break when you brought in black people to vote.”   Yves: “…it must be fun having friends from school still…I think it is cool you participated in the civil rights war and met Martin Luther King…When one of your classmates went to read the newspaper and started screaming because the government said that black and white people should be treated equally, I thought it became fair.”   Laiali: “I think it’s really cool how you got inspired by LREI to do such great things. These must have been really important parts of your life if you remember them so well. I am really inspired by all of the things you did.”  ]]>