Christal Cooper – 1,576 Words
Betty Kilby Fisher Baldwin:
For The Sake Of The Children
“Just like there was no room for Baby
Jesus in Bethlehem,
these folks are saying there is no room
for our children
in the white Warren County School
system”
James Wilson Kilby
“You put one foot in front of the other
and you take one day at a time
and everyday you vow it is not going to
destroy you.
And you can not allow them to win.
Only God can have dominion over my life. “
Betty Kilby Fisher Baldwin
On July 19, 1958, Betty Kilby Fisher
with her two older brothers James and John, were three of twenty-two children
named in the lawsuit Betty Ann Kilby et als, Plaintiffs vs The County School
Board of Warren County.
Betty’s father James Wilson Kilby
insisted she and her brothers attend the “white school” instead of sending them
outside the county to a segregated school.
Federal Judge John Paul Jr agreed
with her father, and on September 4, 1958, told Warren County School Board
officials that they could not deny Negroes admission to the county’s only high
school because of race. Judge Paul
demanded the attorneys to have an order readey for his signature on Monday,
September 8, 1958, to have the twenty two high school students admitted to the
Warren County High School.
On September 11, 1958 Chief Judge
Simon E Sobeloff of the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Judge
Paul.
The fighting intensified when, the
next day, Betty’s segregated white-only-school , Warren County High School,
became the first school to close at the behest of The Warren County Board of
Education.
Virginia Governor James Lindsay
Almond Junior , siting the Massive Resisancse Laws as his reasoning, demanded
that all schools enrolling any Negro student immendiatley be closed.
Thus set the motion for James Kilby’s
response to the Governor Almond and state of Virginia’s refusal to abide by the
Supreme Court’s 1954 decision in Oliver Brown et al vs. Board of Education of
Topeka, Kansas.
On September 15, 1959 a photographer
from Life Magazine visited the Kilby farm to take a photograph of
Betty, her two brothers, and her father.
That same photograph,
zoomed in on Betty and her father, became the cover of Betty’s memoir Wit,
Will, and Walls.
“I remember the day we
took the photograph. My father told us
to get dressed because they were going to take our pictures. He told us this
was serious business. We werent’ supposed
to smile or giggle. I put on my Sunday
School dress.”
James Kilby
informed his three older children of the importance of what their stand would
mean: that they as individuals were
guaranteed the political process just as their fellow white citizens; the
importance of them being registered and responsible voters; and to vote for the
proper people because the laws they made affected their lives.
Her father and the school counselors explained
to the children that they we were soldiers of God’s army, marching to get an education
for all of God’s children. The children
were told to never giggle, laugh, and to always stand proud and strong. This didn’t seem too difficult for Betty,
considering being raised in the racial south as a black sharecropper’s daughter.
“We never played in our Sunday School clothes. As farmers we didn’t play we worked.”
That work consisted of going to
school Monday through Friday, doing homework, and then doing chores: checking the mailbox, caring for the family
calf, milking the cows, cutting the heads off chickens, working in the fields,
housework, and constantly being on her guard.
Even
though the family did not have KKK as neighbors, the Night Riders felt the need
to visit the family farm on numerous occasions:
to mutilate and kill their calf; kill their pet dog Tylo; shoot gunshots
during the family’s dinner; burn crosses in the family’s yard; place a
hangman’s noose on the family’s front porch; and place bloody stained white
sheets over the mailbox. It soon became
common practice to view “checking the mailbox” as a frightening chore.
“One day I heard something scratching in
the mailbox. I imagined a big
cobra. We got Mama and a stick, and we
opened the mailbox, going around behind it to see what it was. It was just a turtle.”
On February 18, 1959, Betty (now in
the 8th grade and four days shy of her 14th birthday) and
her brothers were finally able to attend Warren County High School with their
white classmates. Not a single white
student enrolled for classes until September 1959.
The September 1959 school year was
not a nurturing environment for Betty, but rather a breeding ground for
battle. She had to constantly look over
her shoulder and make sure she was never alone.
One day, she crossed to the auditorium by herself only to be raped by
three young white male classmates. Betty
passed out during the rape. When she
recovered consciousness, she stood up, rearranged her clothes, went home,
placed her clothes in the hamper, and cooked the family meal, not telling
anyone.
The
thought of writing her own memoir did not occur utnil 1989, but was soon pushed
to the side until September 11, 2001 when she was laid off after a successful
career in management at Rubbermaid and American Airlines.
Betty
was now in new territorty all over again –her experience of writing was a small
one: she wrote the traditional Christmas
play for her church at the age of sixteen; and a 30-page booklet “Freedom Road”
about the history of Warren County from 1836 to 1986, which was publsihed in
the Shenandoah Valley Historical review.
Betty,
at age 61, purchased a new computer and a book on writing and delved into the
unknown. The writing, though painful at
times, seemed to go smoothly until she came to the chapter of the rape.
“It was a very painful experience. I took my laptop to the closet and wrote the
chapter in its entirety from the closet.”
Nine
months later the book was complete and ready to be sent to the publisher for
print. The Life Magazine photograph of her fahter,
herself, and two brothers had to be decreased by 30% in order for her to use the
copyright and make it the jacket cover.
Betty had copies printed for her
husband, children, and grandchildren.
The rape still remained a secret that she shared only with Elsa. Wit, Will, & Walls was published
in December 2002, but Betty did not have a copy printed for her mother and
father. Her father passed in May of 2003
and she never told her mother, who has also since passed. Wit, Will & Walls has sold
over 20,000 copies.
Soon she was asked to give speeches
of her experiences and was even invited by Virginia Delegate Viola Baskerville
to attend a meeting in the Virginia capital.
Unfortunately, an ice storm hit the area so she was not able to drive
nor was a taxi able to take her to the airport.
“I took off walking. A black girl in a SUV gave me a ride. When I offered her money she said no. I gave her an autographed copy of my book. She e-mailed me and said the same thing (the
rape) that happened to you happened to me. And my life was blessed by your
story.”
Now Betty doesn’t hesitate to tell all of her experiences. And people are paying attention, including
documentary filmmaker Paulette Moore of Moore Films, who produced and directed
a documentary on Betty Kilby Fisher.
Betty suggested to Moore that she hire her granddaughter Tanesia Fisher
to portray her in the film.
“My granddaguhter had read the book
four times and each time she has had to do some kind of paper. She asked some really good quesitons. She had a really good understanding – in dance,
music, very poised and very mature.
Paulette said she still wanted a
profesional actress but that she would talk to Tanesia. After she talked to Tanesia, she called me
and said, “You were absolutely right.’”
The film debued in February of 2007;
but the film was only half of the debue – Betty Kilber Fisher Baldwin stood next
to Phoebe Kilby, a white woman who read Bertty’s book and realized that her
white family once owned Betty’s family. Phoebe contacted Betty the previous
month on Martin Luther King Jr Day in 2007.
“I was able to say I was not only
celebrating Marin Luther King Jr Day that one day sons and daughters of former slaves
and former slave holders will come to the table of brotherhood; I was (also)
able to say that I was celebratring that my family and my slave owning family
are sitting at the table of brotherhood. It was very emotional and very
impactful.”
Betty and Phoebe consider each other cousins
and now travel throughout the country, telling their story to whomever is willing
to listen.
“We tell the story of the little black girl who struggled to get an education and the story of the little white girl who was born into privilege. And now we come together to sit at the table so we invite others to come to the table as a way of healing our nation; because we believe that if we can all sit down and just lay everything out on the table that we can truly make this world a better place.”
PHOTO DESCRIPTION AND COPYRIGHT INFO
Photo
1
Warren
County Court Hall in September 1958.
Photo
made available by Betty Kilby Fisher Baldwin.
Photo
2
Busing
for African American Students from Warren County all the way to Clarke County.
Photo made available by Betty Kilby Fisher Baldwin.
Photo made available by Betty Kilby Fisher Baldwin.
Photo
3
Federal
Judge John Paul Jr.
Public
Domain.
Photo
4
Chief
Judge Simon E. Sobeloff.
Public
Domain
Photo
5
James
Kilby and three older children
Photo
5
Virginia
Governor James Lindsay Almond Jr.
Public
Domain
Photo
6
September
222, 1958 issue of Time Magazine featuring Virginia Governor James Lindsay
Almond Jr on its cover.
Photo
7
On
May 17, 1954, these men, members of the U.S. Supreme Court, ruled unanimously
that racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. Photo taken on December 14, 1953
The
members of the Warren Court, taken in 1953. Back row (left to right): Tom Clark,
Robert H. Jackson, Harold Burton, and Sherman Minton.
Front row (left to right): Felix Frankfurter, Hugo Black,
Chief Justice Earl Warren, Stanley Reed, and William O. Douglas.
Public
Domain
Photo
8
Jacket
cover of Witt, Will, & Walls.
Photo
9
Betty
in her Sunday School dress on September 15, 1958.
Photo
10a
Police
guard protecting the 23 students at Warren County High School in 1959.
Photo
made available by Betty Kilby Fisher Baldwin.
Photo
10b
In “Wit, Will and Walls,” a tearful Betty Kilby
Fisher recalls her father, played by Theodore Snead, praying outside, asking
for divine guidance after losing a court battle to retain land he had been
promised by a landlord. That loss compelled Kilby to seek a better education
for his children than he felt he had received.
Copyright
granted by Paulette Moore.
Photo
11
Photo
12
Betty
and James Kilby on September 15, 1958 at their farm.
Photo
13
KKK
burning crosses in Denver, Colorado 1921.
Public Domain.
Photo
14
Some
of the 23 students walking to Warren County High School.
Photo
made available by Betty Kilby Fisher Baldwin.
Photo
15
Warren
County High School.
Public
Domain
Photo
16
Tanesia
Fisher portraying her grandmother Betty Kilby Fishher Baldwin in the
documentary by Paulette Moore.
Copyright
granted by Paulette Moore.
Photo
17
Betty
Kilby Fisher Baldwin.
Copyright
granted by Betty Kilby Fisher Baldwin.
Photo
18
Betty
Kilby Fisher Baldwin.
Copyright granted by Betty Kilby Fisher Baldwin.
Copyright granted by Betty Kilby Fisher Baldwin.
Photo
19
Tanesia
Fisher portraying her grandmother Betty Kilby Fishher Baldwin in the
documentary by Paulette Moore.
Copyright
granted by Paulette Moore.
Photo
21
Jacket
cover of Wit, Will & Walls
Photo
22
Betty
Kilby Fisher Baldwin in 2002.
Copyright
granted by Betty Kilby Fisher Baldwin.
Photo
23
Virginia
Delegate Viola Baskerville
Public
Domain
Photo
24
Paulette
Moore Films website logo and contact info
Photo
25
Paulette
Moore.
Copyright
granted by Paulette Moore
Photo 26
Tanesia
Fisher portraying her grandmother Betty Kilby Fisher Baldwin in the documentary
by Paulette Moore.
Copyright
granted by Paulette Moore.
Photo
27
Betty,
Phoebe, James on the day they first met.
Copyright
granted by Betty Kilby Fisher Baldwin.
Photo
28.
Betty
and Phoebe Kilby.
Copyright
granted by Betty Kilby Fisher Baldwin.
Photo
29
Martin
Luther King Jr. delivering his “I Have A Dream” speech.
Public
Domain.
