Anne Arundel County Sisters Share Story Of Integrating White School
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- It was a day to celebrate Black History Month at Chesapeake High School, highlighting the achievements made by African Americans in the community and throughout the state of Maryland.
"It's very important for people to know where they come from," Shea Lynch, a junior at Chesapeake High School, said. "Because everyone in the past had to work hard to get what we have now."
Student organizers at Chesapeake High School said the goal is to educate and inspire others.
"I think if they learned more about it, they could appreciate what they have in life and more, and maybe strive to do what they can with it," Lynch said.
Speakers from all walks of life visited the school to share a glimpse of their lives before and after the Civil Rights Movement. The day kicked off with Yolande Dickerson, who grew up in the area.
"I went to an all-black school in the 1950s in Anne Arundel County, northern Anne Arundel County, a four-room brick school, the first brick schoolhouse in Anne Arundel County," Dickerson said.
Her sister Aldone Pryce also shared her experiences growing up in the county.
"We were going to be doing something different from what my sisters and brothers did: we were going to attend a white school, and it was us who were going to be integrating it," Pryce said. "We were one of the first classes at the school, and it wasn't easy."
Students said it's important to keep these memories of the past alive.
"The further the generations go, the more and more this is in the past, and we don't want it to just disappear," Lynch said.
