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Thursday, February 24, 2000

SHADOWS OF THE PAST
Shadows of the past but still have hopes for a bighter future

Daytona Beach News-Journal Staff Report

Robin McClarien knows firsthand the Civil Rights era struggles that elementary school children today read about in history books.

"When they started integration, I was in the fifth grade at Bonner Elementary," the 44-year-old office manager at Bethune-Cookman College said.

"We had to transfer to Volusia Elementary and that school is gone now," she said. "Everybody seemed nice. It was like it was so new. I didn't experience a real prejudice."

Looking back on those years, McClarien prefers not to discuss them with her 19-year-old son, Jarett, a student at B-CC.

"I don't like to talk about what happened back then because it's too negative," she said, her voice trailing off.

"As a child of the '60s, I feel blacks were kept in their place and whites were superior," she explained.

She wasn't alone in the conversion.

"My mother was an elementary school teacher and she had to switch schools too," McClarien said. "She went from Westside to Campbell Elementary which is now the Dickerson Center."

The lifelong Daytona Beach resident feels lucky because she had a strong educational foundation to succeed financially, despite the rough beginnings. She doesn't believe there are a lot of job op portunities for many blacks in Daytona Beach.

Other blacks share her viewpoint, noting that the city relies too heavily on tourism. Blacks make up 30 percent of the city's population, and with a market economy that scarcely has industry, many can't compete for the higher wage jobs.

"Blacks are still waiting for America to fulfill its promise," said Laurence H. Wesley, an associate professor at Daytona Beach Community College.

The 45-year-old Daytona Beach native believes that in order for Daytona Beach to grow and become a united community, its residents need to understand history, which he describes as "knowledge, identity and power."

Though his students attended integrated schools, Wesley believes some will have a tough time competing for too few jobs that pay well. And those not fortunate enough to attend college have an even tougher time, he feels.

"America as a concept has been here for 390 years," he said. Wesley, who's written a number of history books about African-American experiences, first attended segregated schools.

"In 1610, the Puritans arrived and in 1619-20, Africans arrived in Jamestown on a Dutch frigate, exchanged as cargo for food," he said.

Only since the Voting Rights Bill in 1965 have blacks been free in this country, Wesley said.

Wesley believes Daytona Beach has to begin thinking "globally and appreciate the richness of diversity which is America's strength."

Jimmy Huger, 85, certainly agrees with that.

"I have always said that in order for all of us to participate in the good society, we need higher paying jobs for minorities high-tech industry that will pay good wages," Huger said.

With a new century here, Huger thinks it's time for change in Daytona Beach, so blacks can compete with whites on a "level playing field" for better-paying jobs that would allow them to seek better housing and put their children through college in greater numbers.

Like McClairen, Huger knows all too well that it has not always been a level playing field.

Huger couldn't go to the beach or ride in the front of the bus or eat at the counter of Woolworth's with white patrons. He achieved some level of success over racism by being elected to the Daytona Beach City Commission and later the Volusia County Council.

Huger said he still has a sour taste in his mouth over some of the roadblocks he faced individually and as part of a race of people.

He was soundly defeated in his bid for mayor in 1970 by what he called the white majority.

"Being that Daytona Beach was a tourist community, I was told it was not feasible to have a black mayor," he said. The magnet for that tourism was the beach. And not until the latter part of the 1960s after the St. Augustine beaches were integrated by threat of state police force, did the same happen here. "We had to go to Bethune Beach instead, he said.

Having met Dr. King, Huger believes the civil rights leader's "I Have a Dream" speech could become reality, but not likely in his lifetime.

Dean O'Brien, a native of New Jersey and a five-year resident of the city, said he believes Daytona Beach should embrace diversity.

"You're not going to attract major industry otherwise," he said. Such industry would also pay decent wages to poor whites as well, said O'Brien who is black.

"Daytona Beach is still a divided community, though," O'Brien said. Black College Reunion is a testament to that, he said.

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