Murals enshrine those who integrated school system in 1961
Harry Williams signed his name on a 20-foot-tall portrait of himself in the cafeteria of Bruce Elementary School, in the building where he learned to read and write and in the room where the first grader was not allowed to eat his lunch.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - Earlier this month, Harry Williams signed his name on a 20-foot-tall portrait of himself in the cafeteria of Bruce Elementary School, in the building where he learned to read and write and in the room where the first grader was not allowed to eat his lunch.
Being black and receiving an education in 1961 from Bruce Elementary, then an otherwise all-white school, was an act of courage, many said at the art unveiling. Memphian Jamond Bullock’s artwork enshrines the day Williams and two others integrated the school on the cafeteria’s walls for the current elementary schoolers to see.
“It put tears in my eyes” to see the portrait, Williams said. “I looked back and said, ‘Man, that’s me.’”