Fayetteville's African-American Residents Share Experiences
Library event one of several commemorating Black History Month
By Joel Walsh
February 13, 2015 at 1 a.m.
Tammy Perry Bradley (right) spoke Thursday alongside fellow longtime Fayetteville residents Jimmye Whitfield (center) and Gigi Holder during a panel discussion about the African-American experience in Fayetteville at the city’s library.
FAYETTEVILLE -- Nobody ever said anything overt to Jimmye Whitfield about her race growing up as an African-American child in Fayetteville in the 1950s and 1960s.
"There were no blatant signs, so you'd have to guess around and see, 'What can I do, or what can I not do?"" Whitfield, 71, said during a panel discussion Thursday at the Fayetteville Public Library. "Can I go to the skating rink? No. Can I go over here to the Dairy Queen down on College? Yeah."
Blacks weren't welcome anywhere but the balcony at the movie theater. And segregation still persisted at University of Arkansas football games. Whitfield remembered a row of chairs being reserved for people of color behind the goalposts.
She and two other panelists -- Tammy Perry Bradley and Gigi Holder -- offered perspectives from three different generations on what it's like living as a black person in Fayetteville. Their discussion was part of several local events commemorating Black History Month.
All three women remembered being among very few African-American students at Fayetteville High School.
Of 75,602 Fayetteville residents, just 5,286, or 7 percent, are black, according to 2013 U.S. Census Bureau estimates. African-Americans make up 16.2 percent of Arkansas' population statewide. And on the national level, 13.6 percent of U.S. citizens are black, according to census data.
Whitfield graduated from FHS in 1961, several years after the high school began admitting black students.
"I can truthfully say that there was never any violence or bad behavior," she said. "We didn't experience any of that. We were accepted, but just kind of looked at. And we were curious, too."
Bradley, a former social studies teacher at Holcomb Elementary School, remembered certain barriers, however, even in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Especially when it came to boys. There was a "limited dating pool," she said, because, to her, white students were off-limits. She remembered having to go to prom with her cousin and, at times, feeling "invisible."
Holder, 30, had a different experience.
"Whoever I liked was just who I liked," she said. "I never paid attention to what color they were."
Holder remembered being taken aback in high school when one of her friends blurted out, "Gigi likes white guys." The thought had never occurred to her.
"I was like, 'They're just guys. Why should I not like them,'" she said.
If anything, Holder added, she felt out of place among other black students. She remembers being bullied by other members of her own race as a kid.
"There was this mentality of, 'You live in the white neighborhood. You're from the white neighborhood. So you don't mix with us,'" she said. "I got a lot of that growing up. I wasn't ever black enough."
Thursday's event was moderated by Dr. Valandra, an assistant professor in the University of Arkansas' School of Social Work and African & African-American Studies program.
It also included excerpts from an oral history project by Jacqueline Froelich, a senior news producer at local National Public Radio affiliate KUAF. The project detailed the often unpleasant experiences of black Ozarks residents.
Bradley said it's important for residents of all colors to be honest about the history of slavery, segregation and racial discrimination in the United States.
"Everyone has to have a sense of where you came from -- where you belong or how you got to where you are -- in order to appreciate it," she said.
NW News on 02/13/2015
By Joel Walsh
February 13, 2015 at 1 a.m.
Tammy Perry Bradley (right) spoke Thursday alongside fellow longtime Fayetteville residents Jimmye Whitfield (center) and Gigi Holder during a panel discussion about the African-American experience in Fayetteville at the city’s library.
FAYETTEVILLE -- Nobody ever said anything overt to Jimmye Whitfield about her race growing up as an African-American child in Fayetteville in the 1950s and 1960s.
"There were no blatant signs, so you'd have to guess around and see, 'What can I do, or what can I not do?"" Whitfield, 71, said during a panel discussion Thursday at the Fayetteville Public Library. "Can I go to the skating rink? No. Can I go over here to the Dairy Queen down on College? Yeah."
Blacks weren't welcome anywhere but the balcony at the movie theater. And segregation still persisted at University of Arkansas football games. Whitfield remembered a row of chairs being reserved for people of color behind the goalposts.
She and two other panelists -- Tammy Perry Bradley and Gigi Holder -- offered perspectives from three different generations on what it's like living as a black person in Fayetteville. Their discussion was part of several local events commemorating Black History Month.
All three women remembered being among very few African-American students at Fayetteville High School.
Of 75,602 Fayetteville residents, just 5,286, or 7 percent, are black, according to 2013 U.S. Census Bureau estimates. African-Americans make up 16.2 percent of Arkansas' population statewide. And on the national level, 13.6 percent of U.S. citizens are black, according to census data.
Whitfield graduated from FHS in 1961, several years after the high school began admitting black students.
"I can truthfully say that there was never any violence or bad behavior," she said. "We didn't experience any of that. We were accepted, but just kind of looked at. And we were curious, too."
Bradley, a former social studies teacher at Holcomb Elementary School, remembered certain barriers, however, even in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Especially when it came to boys. There was a "limited dating pool," she said, because, to her, white students were off-limits. She remembered having to go to prom with her cousin and, at times, feeling "invisible."
Holder, 30, had a different experience.
"Whoever I liked was just who I liked," she said. "I never paid attention to what color they were."
Holder remembered being taken aback in high school when one of her friends blurted out, "Gigi likes white guys." The thought had never occurred to her.
"I was like, 'They're just guys. Why should I not like them,'" she said.
If anything, Holder added, she felt out of place among other black students. She remembers being bullied by other members of her own race as a kid.
"There was this mentality of, 'You live in the white neighborhood. You're from the white neighborhood. So you don't mix with us,'" she said. "I got a lot of that growing up. I wasn't ever black enough."
Thursday's event was moderated by Dr. Valandra, an assistant professor in the University of Arkansas' School of Social Work and African & African-American Studies program.
It also included excerpts from an oral history project by Jacqueline Froelich, a senior news producer at local National Public Radio affiliate KUAF. The project detailed the often unpleasant experiences of black Ozarks residents.
Bradley said it's important for residents of all colors to be honest about the history of slavery, segregation and racial discrimination in the United States.
"Everyone has to have a sense of where you came from -- where you belong or how you got to where you are -- in order to appreciate it," she said.
NW News on 02/13/2015
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