Life Lessons from the Stories of Our Elders

In the days when I was a middle-school teacher, my students and I decided to become story collectors, and we began an oral history project, meeting with folks in our community to gather memories and wisdom that might otherwise be lost to time. Our interviews sometimes involved a trek to a ramshackle house on a local ranch; other times, the interviewee would come to our school and we would gather together in the classroom or outside in the shade of a tree, hearing tales that now, years later, comprise a precious trove worth revisiting and sharing. One unforgettable visitor was Dr. Arthur Norris Hicks, an educator and human rights advocate who came to see us at Dunn Middle School in 2004, and whose story remains relevant and inspiring. 

Born in 1922 in the heart of segregated Dixie, Art faced the ugly realities of racism right from childhood. “Even as kids, we understood,” he told us, “and in case we didn’t, they reminded us by throwing rocks through the window.”

He learned to live with anger. “But it was anger that had to be subdued,” he said, “and you felt a constant frustration. Once in a while you had to express it, but mostly you kept it inside. You learned how to survive, and how to maintain one’s mentality.”