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Teacher, Student Recall a Segregated Classroom

Then and Now: Matilda "Tillie" Beauford, as a student (left) in Huston Diehl's class in 1970, and today (right).
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Then and Now: Matilda "Tillie" Beauford, as a student (left) in Huston Diehl's class in 1970, and today (right).

The first class that Huston Diehl taught was a group of fourth-graders at Morton Elementary School in Louisa County, Va.

It was 1970, in the waning days of officially sanctioned segregation — of separate and, as Diehl would learn, decidedly unequal schooling.

Diehl, now a professor of English at the University of Iowa, describes her experiences teaching in the rural South in a new book, Dream Not of Other Worlds: Teaching in a Segregated Elementary School, 1970.

It was here, in a school that the county neglected to provide with textbooks, that Diehl learned firsthand the damaging effects that institutional racism and Jim Crow politics would have on her young charges.

She soon discovered that she was learning more from her students than they had the chance to learn from her.

Diehl and Matilda Beauford, one of her former students, speak with Scott Simon about their days in Louisa County, and the legacy of segregation.

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.