Source Pg. 5 & 6

all did.  She was pale, her lips and fingertips blue.  Breathless as she was, she mustered a faint smile and tried to reassure us.
   None of us wanted to leave her with those white strangers, but Mrs. Huckaby seemed to be a take-charge person who would look after her.  She ushered us out, saying we had to go.  Just for an instant, I worried about how Thelma's parents would get through the huge crowd outside to pick her up if she were really ill.
   Three thirty-nine, that was the number of the homeroom on my card; I was assigned to the third floor.  We quickly compared notes.  Each of us was assigned to a different homeroom.
   "Why can't any of us be in the same homeroom or take classes together?" I asked.  From behind the long desk, a man spoke in an unkind booming voice.  "You wanted integration...you got integration."
   I turned to see the hallway swallow up my friends.  None of us had an opportunity to say a real good-bye or make plans to meet. I was alone, in a daze, following a muscular, stocky white woman with closely cropped straight black hair.  Up the stairs I went, squeezing my way past those who first blocked my path and then shouted hurtful words at me.  "Frightened" did not describe my statel I had moved on to terrified.  My body was numb.  I was only aware of my head and thoughts and visions.
   I had fantasized about how wonderful it would be to get inside the huge beautiful castle I knew as Central High School.  But the reality was so much bigger, darker, and more treacherous than I had imagined.  I could easilyi get lost among its spiral staircases.  The angry voices shouting at me made it all the more difficult to find my way through these unfamiliar surroundings. I was panic-stricken at the thought of losing sight of my guide.  I ran to keep up with her.
   "Move it, girlie," she called back at me.
   "Pheeew!" one boy said, backing away from me.  Others stopped and joined in his ridicule.  For an instant, I stood paralyzed.
   "Don't stop!" the woman commanded.  Her words snapped me into action.  I scuffled to move behind her. Suddenly I felt
it - the sting of a hand slapping the side of my cheek, and then warm slimy saliva on my face, dropping to the collar of my blouse.
A woman stood toe-to-toe with me, not moving.  "Nigger!" she shouted in my face again and again.  She appeared to be a little older than my mother.  Her face was distorted by rage.  "Nigger bitch.  Why don't you go home?" she lashed out at me.  "Next thing, you'll want to marry one of our children."
   Marry, I thought, as I darted around her.  I wasn't even allowed to go on a real date.  Grandma wouldn't let me marry.  Besides, why would I choose to marry one of those mean Little Rock white people?  My temples throbbed, my cheek stung, the spit was still on my face.  It was the first time I had ever been spat upon.  I felt hurt, embarrassed....I wondered if I'd catch her germs.  Before I could wipe it off, my guide's harsh command summoned me to move.
   "Get going.  Now.  Do you hear me?  Move!  Now!"  I brushed the saliva off my nose with my hand.
   As I entered the classroom, a hush fell over the students.  The guide pointed me to an empty seat, and I walked toward it.  Students sitting nearby quickly gathered their books and moved away.  I sat down, surrounded by empty seats, feeling unbearably self-conscious.  Still, I was relieved to be off my feet.  I was disoriented, as though my world were blurred and leaning to the left, like a photograph snapped from a twisted angle and out of focus.  A middle-aged woman, whom I assumed to be the teacher, ignored me.
   "Open your book to page twelve," she said, without allowing her eyes to acknowledge me.
   "Are you gonna let that nigger coon sit in our class?" a boy shouted as he glared at me.  I waited for the teacher to say or do something.
   "Now, class, if you've done the homework, then you know---"  A loud voice cut her off, shouting.  "We can kick the crap out of this nigger," the heckler continued.  "Look, it's twenty of us and one of her.  They ain't nothing but animals."
   Again, I waited for the teacher to speak up, but she said

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