\nIn response to the person exclaiming about the situation in the sixties:\nWhat many of our members recall vividly from that period of time is how\nblack teachers and black principals were fired or demoted, some even went\nto work as custodians. Our members and their families all experienced\nthis to some degree. Right now, Valdosta City Schools probably has fewer\nblack administrators that at any time since integration. We have taken\ncomplaints whereby black professionals were passed over for promotion\nor demoted or denied a position which was given to white candidates\nwith less experience, fewer credentials, and even in one instance, an\nincomplete employment application. These stories are profound and leave\nlasting impressions which cannot be ignored. It is very impolite for\nthe majority to tell the minority how to feel about this. Integration,\nas Dr. George has clearly explained, did not solve all problems.\n\nOur members have valid reasons for feeling the way we do, we feel\nthat the rights of all children to achieve are also interwoven with\nthe rights of all education professionals to be treated with equality\nand fairness. Since we are having to fight so hard for equality and\nrepresentation in Valdosta City Schools, where we have several Board\nmembers who represent minority districts, and a black Chairman, it is\nimpossible for us to believe that becoming even more of a minority in a\nconsolidated system will be beneficial. The struggles have been lengthy,\nexpensive, and emotional, and they continue today.\n
\n-Leigh Touchton\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The appended came in last night as a comment on Audience interaction about CUEE @ LCDP 2 May 2011. Leigh Touchton is President of the Valdosta-Lowndes NAACP and was present at the LCDP meeting, as was NAACP First Vice President Phyllis Stallworth. -jsq In response to the person exclaiming about the situation in the sixties: […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97,40,1376,15,49,19,1105,322,4081,2951,1106],"tags":[4019,8829,1363,3494,8701,10,3528,3491,548,8702,8762,12,7,938,8863,4082,1635,6],"class_list":["post-2078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-community","category-cuee","category-education","category-elections","category-history","category-lcboe","category-lcdp","category-lcdp-2-may-2011","category-naacp","category-vboe","tag-2-may-2011","tag-cuee","tag-debate","tag-george-rhynes","tag-georgia","tag-gretchen-quarterman","tag-integration","tag-jim-parker","tag-john-s-quarterman","tag-lake","tag-lcdp","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-lowndes-county-democratic-party","tag-naacp","tag-school-system","tag-unification","tag-valdosta"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-xw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2078\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}