Davidson is very important. It's a legacy here in this town, and I think that the kids that's growing up now should know
What we went through
in order to have a school.
We didn't know how much we were missing
until we probably went to college because I think we were sheltered in a small town.
It was just, you know, the only way that we knew.
My name is Dottie Chapman Reed. I live here in Atlanta, Georgia now, but I'm a native of Water Valley, Mississippi.
I am a grandmother, and I am writing a column now for The North Mississippi Herald.
My name is Emma Faye Gooch.
I was born and raised in Water Valley, Mississippi.
I'm a mother. I'm a grandmother.
I'm a retired Army veteran.
We had to walk to school.
You know, it wasn't a long walk.
That was the shortest part of our world. You know, to switch over from the Black neighborhood
through the white neighborhood back into the Black neighborhood again.
We didn't have backpacks or anything like that. And you have a armload of books, and you're walking
over to Davidson Elementary School.
We don't know really if our books were always up to par or not.
Several people who graduated from Davidson did go to college, and they have done really well.
We didn't know what we were missing until we got out into society.
We saw how hard the teachers worked, and what they did to prepare us every day
because they poured so much into our lives that we might not have appreciated at the time,
but now we're reaping the benefits of their sacrifices and their toil.
To know that there was a place that I could go and people cared about what I did
what I learned and how I used what I learned
that's what Davidson was to me.
And we had pride in that school
and when I think about all the things that we had as far as the trophies and all our graduation
pictures of the classes and stuff. They're all gone.
It makes me sad because there are other facilities that have just been literally torn down.
There is nothing left to show that we even existed as a school.
The school was segregated. That was our legacy.
That was what we did when we were growing up, and we always came out on top.
Just as simple is that. We had the best. We had the best coaches. We had the best teachers.
You know, we loved our schools.
And we loved our administrators, our teachers, and you know
they were hard on us sometimes, but they were there trying to make for a better world and make us stronger.
I'm still in awe of
how we made it through.
Regardless of all the downfalls, all the lack of schoolbooks,
we still made it, and that regardless of who you are
and regardless of what your circumstances are
you can make it in this world.
You just have to put forth the effort.
I think that's really one of the key things about the Black community in general.
You know, most of our educators and parents had high expectations
and that was one thing that motivated a lot of us to try to do what they've done. You know, to
accomplish something with our lives and to give back to others. And and that's what I think
I learned at Davidson, and that was so very important.
And I think that's the legacy that they could look back and see that people
right now today
can't even imagine
a segregated school
can't even imagine that the world was different back then.
I was a member of the last class, last segregated class to graduate
from Davidson High School.
I'm a graduate of Davidson High School
Class of 1970.
The last class that graduated
from a segregated school in Water Valley, Mississippi.
