Ruth Rosner and Lyda Peters
Recorded
May 16, 2023
Archived
May 16, 2023
47:01 minutes
0:00 / 0:00
Id:
dda003183
Description
Lyda Peters [no age given] and Ruth Rosner [no age given] talk about being teachers in Boston before desegregation efforts began, and what drove them to become activists in the fight for education equity.Subject Log / Time Code
Lyda Peters (L) tells her experience of being a teacher before desegregation. She was an elementary school teacher, which was a hard job to get as a black woman.
Ruth Rosner (R) decided to change careers and became a writing and illustrating teacher at Dickerman. She recalls experiences of racism from white teachers.
R talks about how it felt to hear these racist comment and actions and how it drove her to act.
L tells story of one particular teacher who put a black student in a closet as punishment and forgot she was there.
R tells her side of the story and how her experience was challenged.
L talks about Garrity decision and claims nobody wanted desegregation or bussing, people just wanted a good education.
R tells story of Marilyn, who according to R, was a student who was punished by having a school administrator give her mother a stick for her mom to hit her with. L does not remember this experience, saying it may have been repressed.
L and R talk about their legacy and life work in getting involved with this fight.
Participants
- Ruth Rosner
- Lyda Peters