Oh, I was a member of the chorus class, the quartet, on the debating team. There was a great opportunity for me to prepare myself for the great task that was awaiting me.
It was the first time I had had a chance to study and know white people. They had a mixed faculty at Scotia. I can never doubt the sincerity and interest of some white people when I think of my experience with my beloved, consecrated teachers who took so much time and patience with me at a time when patience and tolerance were needed.
(What were some of the high lights of your school experience?)
My contact with the fine young Negro teachers – Hattie Bomar, Rebecca Cantey, and others who gave to me the confidence in the ability of the Negro women to be cultured, gave me my very first vision of the culture and ability of Negro women and gave me the incentive and made me feel that if they could do it I could do it too.
My contact with white teachers, such as Miss Barnes, Miss Cathcart, and others, clinched my confidence in the interest, the whole-heartedness of white people in Negroes.
(……any special attachment between you and certain instructors?)
I was a general favorite, but I think that possibly Miss Cathcart was closer to me than any. She was so interested in my personal affairs, in my clothing. She would help supply me. Called me to her room and asked how my shoes were. In the spring she would get materials for my spring clothes. When I graduated from Scotia she had her Sunday School Class of La Grange, Indiana, send me material for my dress and underwear. She taught me mathematics and music.
She and Mrs. Barnes were spared to visit my work in Daytona Beach two years ago. They wept with appreciation when they saw that God had wrought through the efforts they themselves had contributed to me years ago. They now live in Concord, North Carolina.
