Susan Gardner and Lillian Gardner
Recorded
May 19, 2023
Archived
May 19, 2023
50:04 minutes
0:00 / 0:00
Id:
ddc002600
Description
Susan Gardner (65) speaks with her mother, Lillian Gardner (98), about their lives in Tennessee during the time of school desegregation. The two discuss the integrated Girl Scout troop they were involved in and experiencing the first year of school integration in Pulaski, TN.Subject Log / Time Code
Lillian (L) speaks about her early life.
L explains the difference between where she grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana and Tennessee.
Susan (S) remembers growing up in Tracy City, a “Sundown Town.” She explains that her family’s trips to the nearby city of Chattanooga would be the only time she would interact with African American folks.
S recalls moving to Pulaski, TN in 4th grade during the first year of integration. She remembers having a Black teacher that year.
L talks about her time as a teacher in Pulaski during early integration.
S talks about her father being a minister and inviting a Black soloist to come sing at his church.
S speaks about being a part of the integrated Girl Scout troop in Pulaski and how each year her white peers would leave and her Black peers would join. Eventually, S was the only white member in her troop.
L remembers a Girl Scout trip to Fall Creek Falls and being the only troop there with Black members.
S expands on the white Girl Scouts who left her troop.
S speaks further about her 4th-grade teacher, Ms. Sutton.
Participants
- Susan Gardner
- Lillian Gardner