01 February 2011

WHERE’S THE FOUR?
(Or Why Isn’t Anyone Standing In The Gap for Kelley Williams Bolar?)

As I write this blog, I pause to think about the significance of tomorrow: February 1st. This date is more affectionately known as “February One,” on the campus of North Carolina A & T State University, an HBCU in Greensboro, NC. Usually a cold dreary day, it has had a warm place in my heart ever since I set foot on “Aggie Land,” back in 1995. I spent 4 of the best years of my life there and in addition to earning my degree, I learned about the “Greensboro Four.”
On February 1st, 1960, Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair Jr. and David Richmond walked downtown to Woolworth’s, peacefully sat at the counter and asked to be served coffee. They waited all afternoon for service yet did not receive it. The next day, they returned, bringing more students. Soon sit-in protests were being held all over town and in nearby cities like Winston-Salem and Raleigh. This non-violent challenge continued until July 25, 1960, when the five & dime relented, serving its black employees at the counter first. The next day, Woolworth’s desegregated their counters nationwide.

Fast forward to January 2011; Kelley Williams-Bolar is found guilty of taking the law into her own hands. She did not commit murder, assault anyone, or rob a bank. Fed up with the school system where her family lives, she lied about her residency and enrolled her two daughters in the “less brown” township of Copley, where her father lives. At trial, the school deemed that Williams-Bolar should repay “$30,000 for the cost of educating her children. By the way, Copley officials spent $6,000 to investigate when they suspected the girls were attending school outside of their zone. Williams-Bolar refused to pay. She was thereby sentenced to 10 days in jail, three years’ probation and may lose her current job as a teacher’s aide. The single parent is just 12 credit hours shy of becoming a school teacher, but now is a convicted felon.

For crying out loud, where THE hell is Jessie Jackson? Al Sharpton? Oprah Winfrey? Michael Jordan (true—you leapt through the air for millions during the 90’s and was America’s boy-next-door. You have now, however, decidedly grown into a definition ass, but you are a parent, too)? Will Barbara Walters interview her? Will Bono sing a song in Williams-Bolar’s honor? Why hasn’t Brad Pitt, George Clooney or any other celebrities who have asked for an audience with the President about injustices abroad rang the bell at 1600 Pennsylvania on her behalf? Sarah Palin? Surely Kelly’s actions are a maverick move you have to respect… How about any of the potential Presidential candidates for the ‘12 election? I mean, damn, education is a Top Ten issue during a political race. Nobody; not a damn soul of national or international prominence has said, “a word nor a syllable” on this woman’s behalf. Pathetic; simply pathetic.

Why is everyone running scared from this one? Probably because a lot more people than we think do what Williams did—break the law in one form or another, to achieve, “a greater good.” This probably causes a fear of receiving the same scrutiny and the same results—jail. Shit, if Dr. King, Rev. Abernathy, etc. had been afraid of jail, there is no telling where we would be right now. Plus, in the wake of the uprisings in Egypt, and the start of Black history month, I think Americans need to recognize they’ve taken on a lazy, self-centered and inexcusable state of contentment. Bottom line, US citizens are settling for the “okie-doke” and not exercising their right to speak up when something is wrong.

Yes, Williams-Bolar broke the law. But this law kept her children locked into what she perceived “a dangerous environment” and force fed them a second class education. Her stance goes beyond a mere cry of “it’s not fair.” Every child in the United States is supposedly granted the right to an equal education. But we all know that this does not happen. The truth is that many US children receive a shitty education. By putting her children in another school, Williams-Bolar was simply acquiring what is guaranteed her under the law. Furthermore, why is it a crime to do such a thing? True, if no rule was in place, parents would do whatever they wanted, leaving the potential for grand pandemonium. School districts are there to maintain order.

Still, wouldn’t it be cool if kids got an equal education under the law? But they don’t. Wouldn’t it be cool if the parent, who has to work way across town, could put their kid in a school near their job so they wouldn’t miss the PTA meetings, could have lunch with their kid every so often, or attend parent-teacher conferences without feeling rushed? But they can’t. And wouldn’t it be really cool if we could stop being so uptight about this shit and work together on it? But we won’t.


The Sit-in Movements of the 1960’s worked because somebody did something. Somebody took that first step. On February One, four gentlemen took a step. Kelley Williams Bolar took a step and stands alone…or does she?