| Chapter 7: | The Schools |
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Captain of the Science Squad, hoped to become a dentist, Floyd Hawkins wanted to be an art teacher, Charles Elliott intended to pursue a career as a musician, and Henry Booker, Captain of the Varsity Team, wished to become a pharmacist. The aspirations of my Black high school friends were greater than the aspirations of my friends on One Hundred and Seventh Street. Black Harlem was more stable than Italian East Harlem and kept its professional leaders. East Harlem did not. Black professional fathers and mothers encouraged their children to become professionals and remain in the Black community.
Captain of the Science Squad, hoped to become a dentist, Floyd Hawkins wanted to be an art teacher, Charles Elliott intended to pursue a career as a musician, and Henry Booker, Captain of the Varsity Team, wished to become a pharmacist. The aspirations of my Black high school friends were greater than the aspirations of my friends on One Hundred and Seventh Street. Black Harlem was more stable than Italian East Harlem and kept its professional leaders. East Harlem did not. Black professional fathers and mothers encouraged their children to become professionals and remain in the Black community.
Across the street from my high school at One Hundred and Sixteenth Street and Pleasant Avenue was a small grocery store that sold hot meatball sandwiches on Italian bread. Once a week during lunch period three or four of us would go there to eat those incredible meatball sandwiches. The tomato sauce was heavenly.
Frank Sinatra came to our school to talk to us about racial and religious intolerance. The auditorium was packed that day with students and teachers. At the end of his talk he sang some songs for us. A year or so later he made the movie short, “A House I Live In.” His message was now on film. It was the first time that I had heard an entertainer talk about the need to fight discrimination. I thought it was wonderful to be an entertainer like Frank. I didn’t know then that Frank was a Sicilian American.
My Franklin yearbook for 1950 had an optimistic tone to it. We were hopeful for the future. Dr. Covello wrote that “it is in our power to eliminate poverty, to crush hatreds of other people, and to establish the real brotherhood of man.” One of the graduates, Nick