Key moment 1: [00:06:51.5] Mishio Yamanaka: Um . . . May I ask about your school life when you were a child? Do you have any memory? Or what kinds of fun things you had with your friends? [00:07:10.5] Clarence Hebert: Oh well, I mentioned earlier that my parents came from New Roads, Louisiana. And . . . During the summer, that is where we went, that is the children, my parents brings us up there and we stayed with relatives, uncles, aunts and it was . . . enjoyable because we would . . . it was right on False River. And we used to fish. I used to pick cotton, which was a new experience for me. And it was worked to some, but it was enjoyable for us. My sister did not do that. My sister stayed mostly around the ladies, you know, with cooking and doing house chords things like that. [00:08:22.6] Key moment 2: [00:14:27.8] Mishio Yamanaka: How did you get interested in education? What pushed you to become a teacher? [00:14:36.7] Clarence Hebert: Ok. When I was in high school, I met a couple of teachers that I was really impressed with. I can remember some of their names but they are deceased. But there was Ralph Groves and Ines Hicks, well he was a PE teacher. I was always interested in that. At this that is what influenced me and not only that, there weren’t too many things around that age when I was in school. I could have been a postman or I don’t know that . . . I didn’t have too many avenues that I could travel, you know? [00:15:54.7] MY: Is this because of . . . [00:15:56.2] CH: Because of segregation. [00:15:59.0] Key moment 3: [00:21:18.7] Mishio Yamanaka: So . . . May I talk . . . Could you tell me a little bit about, as a teacher how did you experience the process of desegregation and racial integration? [00:21:38.2] Clarence Hebert: Ok, well, the schools were there was one black female that integrated a school by the name of Frantz, F R A N T Z. I never did . . . I never did teach in an integrated school until the latter part of my classroom experiences. There were two Caucasian brother and sister that attended Morton school. But, basically that was it. [00:22:47.7] MY: Really? Do you remember when that was? [00:22:53.4] CH: Well, let’s see. I was . . . I started teaching in [19]56, maybe it was the year after, the year after integration. But, the year it started, they did not have too much integration at the time. Blacks were figuring if they would go and to a predominantly white school. They would have problems, and Caucasians I guess they felt the same [inaudible] about that. It was a, It was a slow process. [00:23:51.6] MY: Do you remember these . . . children, white children, brother and sister. How do you remember how you taught them . . . or . . . [00:24:03.4] CH: I didn’t teach them. [00:24:05.1] MY: Oh you didn’t teach them. [00:24:06.2] CH: But they were, they were at the school. [00:24:08.2] MY: They were at the school. [00:24:10.7] CH: They were . . . I believe and I heard and I did not, do not know, but they lived among blacks. You know, so when they came there, they just folded in with the rest of the kids, you know. [00:24:34.1] Key moment 4: [00:24:40.9] Clarence Hebert: Yes. You know I do not know if it’s [inaudible] in other areas. Here in New Orleans, neighborhoods, quite a few neighborhoods were integrated. You know, we went to different schools. See just like where I was brought up as a kid, there were Caucasians that lived there in the neighborhood, but we went to different schools. But away from the schools we got along fine. [00:25:24.5] Mishio Yamanaka: Did you hang out with them? Or did you play? [00:25:27.8] CH: Oh yes, yes. Yeah. [00:25:31.9] MY: Do you remember what kind of play did you have? [00:25:37.5] CH: Well, we played marbles. We played the ball. There was a fellow. His name is Anthony. His father owned a grocery around there. [00:25:58.2] MY: Around where . . . close to where you lived? [00:26:00.1] CH: Oh yes, ah-huh. Less than a block away. He encouraged me to go fishing with him in City Park one day. My parents had told me don’t go there because you were not allowed in City Park. But being, being challenged to go with Anthony and I went. An officer found me in City Park gave me some whacks on my buttocks and when he turned me loose I run all the way home which was about, about a mile. Yes. [00:26:54.0] MY: You run all the way from City Park to . . . [00:26:56.5] CH: All the way, yes. Strangely enough, my son, my oldest son, became a captain of the New Orleans Police Department and he became the captain of the Mounted and K-9 division in City Park. [00:27:22.2] Key moment 5: [00:51:12.0] Clarence Hebert: Yeah, they went to lock him up [laughing]. But with come aways, but we have a ways to go. I can remember when like a dark black person and maybe and another black who has alight colored skin, it was like that, you know. They have clubs. [chuckle] They had clubs; where they would say, if you are darker than paper bags, if you were skin darker than a paper bag you can’t go in. [00:52:11.9] Mishio Yamanaka: Really. [00:52:12.4] CH: And it was true. It was true. It was separated among the race. It’s not, it’s not nearly as [inaudible] vary as it was. But you find that basically in rural areas, not really in . . . [00:52:38.4] MY: Here in the city. [00:52:39.2] CH: No. But in rural areas, it is still that way. [00:52:44.2]