Interviewee: Mrs. Betty Tutt, female, African American, President of the CSRA Reading Council, Elementary School Principal, Lead (Reading) Teacher, Richmond County School system

Interviewer: Dr. Niki Christodoulou, Dr. Darla Linville, Augusta University

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Dr. Linville: To begin with, we would like for you to introduce yourself. Tell us who you are, if you wanna tell us how old you are or when you were born, what’s your place of birth. How long you’ve been in Augusta, that kind of thing.

Betty Tutt: Sure, are you ready? My name is Betty Jean Morrian Tutt. I am originally from Edgefield, South Carolina. I graduated from Edgefield County Colored High School in 1961. I was the valedictorian of my class and, um, I, um, matriculated at Paine College in Augusta, Georgia in the fall of 1961. And I graduated from Paine College in 1966, the reason I graduated in 1966 was because the year that I was supposed to graduate 1965, I got married and I was not in school that year. Anyway, I did return, and I did graduate from Paine College with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sociology with a minor in English. I went on to pursue a Master’s degree in 1978 from Augusta College and, uh, I received the MEd and early childhood education. I did go further with my education, but that will come with my story, because there was a particular reason why I reenrolled in school when I did. So, again I’m Betty Tutt, uh, I’m 73 years old, my birthday was on Friday, March 25th, um, Good Friday, so I feel good, I’m in good health I still have all my faculties, I think. And I’m very happy to participate in this project, as a matter of fact I’m honored to have been asked to participate in this project. So, I’m gonna share my story with you. First, I’ll say about my, uh, experience as a teacher, enjoy- and as a principal I enjoy all of the particular positions that I have held while I worked in the Richmond County School system, I had a wonderful experience. I really did, I had a passion for what I did and, uh, I still have a passion for education, I still even have a passion for the fairy tales (chuckle). I enjoyed so much reading those to the kids and when my grandkids came along I did indeed enjoy reading fairy tales to them and telling stories. But, my teaching career began in 1966, so we’re talking about the 60’s right now. I worked at a neighborhood school, very, very organized and nice and top of the ranks elementary school. C.T. Walker. As a matter of fact, it was 100% or it had a 100% Black population, student population as well as the administration, the faculty and the staff. Um, there was order, as I stated there was a very orderly school, uh, students respected the teachers, you know if there were any discipline problems, you know I am really not aware of them, because I truly did not have them, again students really respected the teachers and parents revered um the teachers. And you knew who the teachers were, um, because of their overall decorum, they dressed like teachers, (chuckle) there were no such thing as pants suits although in today’s society pants suits are considered professional attire. But, um, teachers were teachers; they came to work with um that in mind, to teach the students and so it was a very good experience for me to start off. Uh, and it continued, I do not mean to imply that it did not continue, because it really did. The classes were homogenously grouped at that particular time. It was a one through eight school, I think perhaps they may have changed classes a little bit in the upper grades, eighth grade in particular not absolutely sure about that. Around 1968, ’69 uh well

integration had been discussed throughout the nation, Augusta you know was preparing for that. Three White teachers did join the faculty at C.T. Walker Elementary School. As far as I could remember it was a smooth transition for them, I don’t think they had any problems and I’m sure the community did not have any problems with their joining the faculty there. Um, I never knew of any bad experiences that they had, they fit right in with everyone there at the school. I will just regress just a minute though, when I started my career there was no orientation from the principal at the school, there really was not. I just received a letter perhaps it was a phone call to tell me that I had been assigned to C.T. Walker Elementary School and uh I wasn’t afraid, but I just didn’t know anything. Anyway, the, uh, the procedure at that particular time with my principal- I don’t know if that was the case in all of the elementary schools or not – was to let the grade chair be your mentor. So, that was what happened and, uh, of course, you know the lady that was my grade chair my first year is no longer living, but she was very nice to me and helped me an awful lot. Uh, in 1970, desegregation, that what I’m gonna call it had become force in the Richmond County School system and, uh, again no orientation, no expectations just a letter saying, you have been transferred to Joseph Lamar Elementary School. Well, again it was exciting to me I was not afraid to go, I really was not, uh, the principal at that school, I simply do not remember his name, I apologize for that, but he accepted the five of us you know African American teachers who came there, um, the faculty, as well, as far as I know. No one ever said anything disrespectful to me but the thing that stood out the most to me at Joseph Lamar Elementary School was how the students embraced me. I will never forget it, you know, they were so kind just really they acted like they liked me and I really liked them, and so it was a good experience for me. Uh, and I’ll tell you a couple of people whose names you might recognize, one is Brad Ushery, he is the owner of, um, a restaurant downtown, they had Fatman’s Forest at the time, which was, um, a store where you could purchase anything for any season that you wanted. I was really very sorry when they closed that store, but Brad Ushery was one of my students and also Cleve Little, who is the, um, Sheriff of Columbia County and, uh, they told me a lot about the community, told me a lot about families, etc., etc. And it was just a good experience for me. I was only there for one year, because at the end of, um, the school year, um, I participated in a reading program; there was always some reading from the time I started my experience until, I assume, until I, you know, retired. Um, a lady named Ms. Louise Kelly, was is the Title I director called me on the phone and asked me how I would like, well, yes, how would you like to be a lead teacher, lead reading teacher. (11:17) And, uh, I didn’t even question it; I was just that naïve and excited and energetic and I said sure! And, uh, so I became a lead reading teacher, lead reading, the emphasis was on reading and literacy. I don’t think any of us really knew what, any of us who were asked to be lead reading teachers, I don’t think any of us really knew exactly what that entailed. And Ms. Kelly knew that we didn’t, because she hired some consultants out of the University of Georgia, one was Dr. Ira Erin. And Dr. Ira Erin was the senior editor of the Scott Foresman Reading Series, you know that’s the Sally, Dick and Jane books and it was awesome! He was a very kind and patient man, uh, all of us liked Dr. Erin, you know. And that’s when I first heard of a behavioral objective learn how, learned what it was and how to write them from Dr. Ira Erin. There were some other consultants, as well, but he was the one that truly stood out to me. Um, I assume some of it was, because of his position you know he was the editor, he was the chairman of the reading department at the University of Georgia at

that particular time. But, particular because I am sitting here getting, you know, um, instruction assistance from the author of a textbook. I just loved it, it was exciting to me. Some of the teachers, some of my peers did not grasp that concept and I learned how to write behavioral objectives, I’ll be quite honest with you, from making a mistake. You know, you didn’t have to put your names on your papers, you know, when you practiced after he had given us instruction and we, you know, submitted them to him and he looked through them and I remember one of the papers that he read was mine he said, oh! Here’s an error and, uh, and it was my paper and nobody ever knew, so I was able to teach some of my peers as I stated how to write behavioral objectives and I understand the importance of that. You know, um, continuous learning is really very, very good for anybody, but particularly for teachers. There were tremendous resources available for us, they really put a lot of money into materials for us to use, to share with our teachers, to demonstrate for the teachers as we continued in our positions as lead teachers, lead reading teachers. And the CSRA Reading Council was founded around that time and I became the President of the CSRA Reading Council later on and in its history, I don’t remember what year it was (you can take that out). But, I was and the people that I’ve tried to call to ask and tell and I went online to try to find the CSRA Reading Council’s history, but it isn’t there and I forgot to ask Dr. Paulette Harris. Anyway, um, it was very influential you know, um, in providing guidance and strategies and trends for the teachers in Richmond County. That was done through conferences, one particular conference was held annually at Augusta State. It was a weekend conference and high profile reading consultants and reading experts were invited to come here, you know, to serve as keynotes speakers and also to provide workshops, rotating workshops for teachers, so money was spent in reading. And that is for sure, the basic test we used in the sixties and a part of the seventies was the Iowa test of basic skills and after a period of time there became complaints from educators and perhaps some parents, as well, stating that, that was an inaccurate, well inappropriate test for the students in Richmond County. How you gonna compare the students in Richmond County to students in Iowa student and blah blah blah? And all this information about a standard just became a big controversy, so, anyway, it was dropped in Georgia and the CRT emerged. And I do recall, um, that Georgia tried to find a publishing company to sale a test for Georgia to use and I was invited to Atlanta to listen to the presentations from the various publishing companies and it escapes me who Georgia chose but um there was no longer the Iowa test of basic skills, it just was gone. So that was the sixties and seventies somehow. I (inaudible)… In 1980’s, by the 1980’s, the lead reading teacher had transformed into the lead teacher period. And, uh, lead teachers were responsible for uh actually implementing curriculum. I know it’s the principal’s job, that’s the primary responsibility of a principal, to implement curriculum, but the lead teacher was responsible for actually you know uh providing a tremendous amount of guidance and inservice for the teachers. We were help to the principals and I liked it you know because curriculum just seems to be my strong area. Um, reading in the content areas you know began to emerge; it was no longer an isolated subject. You know, you had to be able to read in every subject and so we had to put a lot of emphasis there. Also, the curriculum director, Dr. Faye Montgomery had a cabinet, I’ll call it, and there was a coordinator under her direction in every subject area including art and music. And the lead teachers were responsible for going to meetings at least once a month and those coordinators kept us abreast the trends in that particular subject and it was our responsibility to carry that

information back to our faculty so that they could improve their instruction. And I learned from Ms. Willowenna Williams, the late Ms. Willowenna Williams who was the principal of A.R. Johnson, the first of A.R. Johnson’s Magnet School, how to truly design a science project and I was able to share that information with the teachers. I was at Terrace Elementary School at a particular time and uh you know, because children are just used to what is a volcano and put some pictures out and all that kind of stuff, but I taught them because Ms. Willowenna Williams taught us how to really make or conduct a science experiment and even what the board is supposed to look like and what size it’s supposed to be. It’s not a piece of poster board you stick out there with a volcano on it, but truly a scientific experiment. And one of our students won the countywide award and it was about meteorology. I’ll never forget one of our students at Terrace Manor won that. And then we got a bombshell in 1983. And it was called a Nation At Risk, that report was released by the U.S Department of Education and it had so many criticisms about the education system in the United States of America. They said we were mediocre, that our students were not performing, they were underachievers at the national and international, on national and international scales, that the SAT scores have dropped you know 40 points in the verbal area and in math from 1963 to 1980. Some other complaints or other information that they shared, facts that they shared, was that seventeen year olds could not draw any inferences successfully in written material, that American students were never first or second on nineteen academic test compared to other industrialized nations and they were last seven times, and honestly, you all, it really shook me up and I felt personally responsible, you know, like I had done this, you know. And uh, that’s when I went back to school and you know I said earlier on that I was gonna tell you why I went back to school or why I chose to go on and receive another degree and I enrolled in the University of Georgia. I drove down to the University of Georgia on weekends for two years. Two years, but, you know, but I just have to make myself feel better, I had to learn more so that I could share more with the teachers that I was responsible for helping to become better teachers and for our test scores to improve and etc., etc. It did upset the superintendent and, naturally, and everybody was upset and, of course, as the years went on and even now when you read about a Nation At Risk, you’ll find that its more political than it is – well it’s just as political, I’ll say, than it is anything else, and there’s always gonna be you know confusion all of that kind of stuff from people’s different categories like they should say in life different um persuasions of life, like I will think of a better term in a moment. But, still you know I don’t think any of the information was inaccurate and, uh, and I know I couldn’t do anything about the whole nation, but I could do something about that, you know, part of, uh, the system that I was hired to do. And, so inservice improved, Collen Murphy was the director of inservice. I even taught some inservice classes reading, reading in kindergarten you know and things of that nature, things that I really felt comfortable with, in that I had the expertise to do. I didn’t try to teach something that I didn’t know anything about myself. But, anyway we had tremendous inservice and we learned all kind of new strategies for teaching children, particularly the higher learning skills such as inference and analyzing and blah blah blah, because what we had learned was that most of us in Richmond County, I guess, throughout the nation and that may not be true, but in Richmond County, anyway, were teaching at the lower level of Bloom’s Taxonomy; was just recall and comprehension, it didn’t go beyond that too much. (23:01) But, we had, you know, to place emphasis on the higher order skills rather than just on the lower level so um and

that’s what we did. I was promoted at the end of the well I would say 80’s and 90’s that I was just speaking about. At the end of the 90’s or the middle of the 90’s, I was promoted to principal of an elementary school and um I liked to teach better than I liked being a principal, I really did, because I could go in a classroom and um and all of the things that I’m trying to tell others to do I can actually apply that myself and see the results. And of course you can see results from teachers too when you sit and observe, but I just enjoyed teaching more than I did the um being a principal. I assume I was an effective principal I never got any feedback to say that I wasn’t and um when I retired or after I retired people from the community when commend me and tell me things like the school is not the same since you left, and of course that was good to hear in many respects, because it provided some evaluation for me as a principal and you always want to believe that you’ve done a good job. I didn’t retire feeling as excited as would have like to have been about the progress of the school and the students,’ because the test scores never reached the level that I wanted them to, they just didn’t. But, I’m okay, um, now and that’s my story. (24:58)

Dr. Linville: (24:58) Excellent. I wanna ask you um a couple of questions about it. So going all the way back to 1970ish, it sounds like from the way you’ve told it, and tell me if I’ve understood it wrong, and also the way some other people have told it, what the superintendent was doing, was making some efforts to desegregate the teaching force before the students were desegregated in the schools. Is that how you experienced it?

Betty Tutt: That is correct. That’s what I remember.

Dr. Linville: Ok. And do you know anything about that decision or did anybody talk about why.

Betty Tutt: No, well they may have talked about it but that information didn’t trickle down to me necessarily. You know I don’t know if there were some resistance from parents or what, you know. It kind of makes sense though that you would let the teachers test the waters before you put the students out there, because that’s who we were responsible for and the teachers had to be comfortable before they could make the students comfortable, I would think. But as far as the reasons that, that happened, it happened that way I just simply don’t know.

Dr. Linville: And the teachers it sounds like weren’t, there wasn’t a lot of speculation among the teachers about why it was happening; everyone was just doing what they were supposed to be doing.

Betty Tutt: They were doing what they- it was a trend across the nation you know were talking about the civil rights movement. (26:43)

Dr. Linville: Good. Ok. The other thing that I wanted to ask you about, let’s see if I can remember what it was… Oh, yes, so I wanted- you mentioned a lot of different impacts that you’ve had on education in the CSRA area through various positions and I wondered which one you, yourself might evaluate as the most successful or the thing you’re most proud of. And if you can tell us a little bit about that.

Betty Tutt: Um, you know I felt very comfortable serving as a reading expert. You know I’m certified in reading, we had to become certified in reading and so my certificate reads- reading, you know, reading expert. I really am not an expert necessarily, but I know enough about reading

or I knew, I’ll put it that way past tense enough about reading to be able to- to be able to influence teachers. They seem to have respected what I had to say, believed in what I had to say and tried to implement that you know tried to transfer it to their classrooms so teaching, lead reading teacher, well, maybe, lead teacher and lead reading teacher were my most effective um jobs perhaps. (chuckle) (28:17). You know, I was always involved in something with reading so it must have been my greatest strength and greatest contribution, I would say. And I still dabble in reading a little bit, still even after I retired I taught reading here at Augusta State for until 2007, that was my last experience here and at Paine College until 2010. So I’m always involved in reading.

Dr. Christodoulou: Is there something you remember particularly relevant to reading? Perhaps an interaction you had with a student or something that stands out in your mind, that, maybe, you felt kind of proud or that you were making a difference.

Betty Tutt: Well, you know, as I stated when I was talking about um talking about the coordinators in the school system and what they taught us and how we were able to transfer that back to our schools and share it with our teachers. Science you know was one of the areas that I mentioned and that we were able to teach the faculty what a science project entailed. What it looked like, what it felt like, what it was supposed to do, and because of that one of our students won the county ribbon for his project and I think that was a result- because I even went- well I even had a board made and showed that to the teachers and to the students and so everybody learned how to make that three thing board and this student followed all of the steps. From the topic to the um compilation of the statement that he wanted to prove matter and blah blah blah. Maybe I felt like that, because I had taught the faculty who in turn taught the students how to do it correctly, so that stood out to me as far as a student is concerned. You know, I don’t know what else you think I- did you hear anything when I was speaking that might- that you think might have been outstanding? (30:50)

Dr. Linville: Its interesting thinking of you mentioned you were still quite young and naïve when you took on your lead reading teacher role. And I think that must’ve been quite an honor to take on that role, but also there must have been some challenges there in working with other teachers as a mentor while you’re still a young teacher and I wonder if there were any interesting experience. (31:23)

Betty Tutt: Well, there were some interesting experiences because even though we were receiving the training from somebody as renowned as Dr. Ira Erin the teachers weren’t, and the principals weren’t, so they didn’t really understand exactly what it was we were supposed to do. You really had- that was the challenge- the real challenge was to get into that school. The principal accept what you were supposed to- the principal- get into the school and then try to finagle your way through talking with the teachers. I’m thinking about the very first school I had, that’s the reason why my eyes may be turning around in my head. I’m not gonna call the principals name, but he introduced me to the faculty and I began talking about reflecting- talking about my job and my job description and then he started telling me all the things that he wanted for his school and some were things like- well they were technological kinds of things, you know overhead projectors and all that kind of stuff resources to use in the classroom. You know really

wasn’t quite concerned about what it was- my role was; he thought I could just get a lot of materials for him. And then our responsibility was to go back to the Title I office and share those things. Anyway for some reason I ended up not being there all year. It may have been because the principal told Ms. Kelly that I wasn’t the right fit and I don’t know. Nobody ever said and I didn’t ask and I didn’t care, because I didn’t particularly like that environment, at that particular time. Like I- because I’m much older now you know I can adapt to almost anything but at that time, you know, yeah, I was quite impressed that I had been called you know to be a lead reading teacher and um it was prestigious. (33:34)

Dr. Linville: Was that core of lead reading teachers mixed racially?

Betty Tutt: Yes

Dr. Linville: And were- did you – I wonder if you think any of the reason this principal didn’t think you were a good fit had anything to do with race reasons.

Betty Tutt: I didn’t necessarily think that, I really didn’t and I don’t even know and perhaps it was. Well, a White person did replace me it was Pep Bureo [name?], but I didn’t think racially. You know it wasn’t a racial issue for me at that particular time, because like I said- I just didn’t care at that particular time, I really didn’t, about leaving. It was a new school; new for him everything was new. (34:24)

Dr. Linville: Thank you. I was just curious if that came into the mix.

Betty Tutt: Nah, it didn’t. Nothing about race ever came- racial conflict ever came up during my teaching experience, my educational experience in the Richmond County School system from my perspective, you know, it just didn’t.

Dr. Christodoulou: I guess mainly, so you mentioned homogenous-

Betty Tutt: Homogenous grouping

Dr. Christodoulou: In what sense, describe this a little bit.

Betty Tutt: High, medium and low classes you know, that’s the way the classes were scheduled and that became illegal. I don’t know, it ended sometime during my career, I don’t know exactly when, but it did end, because it was considered illegal to do that. You know, even today I think special education is not self- contained classes anymore. They have to be- what is the word-

Dr. Linville: Mainstreamed, integrated.

Dr. Christodoulou: But it was mainly performance wise or achievement wise that they were separated? They were grouped together based on their achievement or performance, rather than some other characteristic, like racial or gender? In other words, homogenous was mainly because of achievement? (36:05)

Betty Tutt: IQ (chuckle), yeah achievement.

Dr. Linville: Alright I have a question that takes you even further back. Thinking about your years at Edgefield High School when you were thinking about going to college what were your

options for college. How did you think about Paine as an option? What did it mean for you to leave Edgefield and go to Paine College?

Betty Tutt: Interesting question. I did not want to go to Paine College. I really did not want to go to Paine College, because I had heard all of my adult life that Paine College was such a hard school. But, I had also heard- that you only came out as a teacher or a preacher. And um that really was the reputation that it had and – but the good thing about it was that you could get a job anywhere, because it was such a good school. But, I didn’t want to go, I just didn’t my uh high school counselor wanted me to go to Benedict and that’s where I really wanted to go, but my mother said, no you’re not because my brother lived here; my oldest brother. And anytime you’re going where family is, it’s okay. So, that’s how I ended up at Paine, but I liked it as the semester went on. I really did begin to like it. The requirement of us as students – it was mandatory that you go to chapel three times a week. I didn’t wanna do it, but it was good for me. And I say in speeches that I give uh where students are involved or where Paine College alumni is involved that if I ever wrote my life story, and this is the truth, this is not just because of Gladys Knight’s song, Paine College would be there because it really made a difference in my life. Of course, Augusta State and University of Georgia were, too, but I would not be where I am if it had not been for Paine College and I know that for many reasons. So, I’m very personal. (38:20)

Dr. Christodoulou: So you said that you didn’t care about, you know, racial issues when you were at schools. What contributed to you not really paying attention to racial issues? What were the things that shaped your outlook? (39:02)

Betty Tutt: You know, well, as I met White people and they met me we were friendly to each other. That’s not to say that I haven’t had some ugly experiences with White people like in a department store or on the streets or some place. But, the same thing with Black people. I just haven’t- of course I would like for there not to be a division between the races and, you know, what’s going on in the world it’s just a mess. But, from a personal experience I didn’t see where it really kept me from growing or being where I am today. Race didn’t, I didn’t see it as that, I just didn’t. You know when I enrolled in school up here at Augusta State I didn’t have any problems getting in. When I went to the University of Georgia and enrolled in the University of Georgia I didn’t have any problems getting in. I didn’t see race as keeping me back from anything that I was trying to do.

Dr. Christodoulou: So you knew who you were and you were kind of empowered to just…

Betty Tutt: I guess it was just in my genes. Well you’re absolutely right I always knew who I was and I didn’t- of course I didn’t seek validation from anybody, but they seemed to have been pleased with what I did and what I contributed and how I cooperated, you know. So, people would constantly motivate me, promote me in many respects throughout my educational experience and still do… (41:34)

Dr. Linville: Did you always know you were going to college when you started first grade? Did your family say to you, you’re gonna go to college?

Betty Tutt: No, not um um they didn’t say to me, you’re going to go to college. I’m a first generation college student. When I was in high school, or, perhaps, junior high school, getting a college degree was something that I wanted to do, but it became a burning desire in my last two years of high school; I just knew I had to go. I just had to get away from Edgefield and see what was on the other side of the mountain you know obtain some kind of life for myself once I left Edgefield. Edgefield didn’t have a lot to offer me, but as I compared myself with other students when I entered Paine College, some of the experiences were much more dramatic than mine, they had learned more than I had, even though I had graduated as valedictorian of my class. Some of the students were just smarter than I was, I’ll put it that way, but that was just a challenge for me and I was determined that I was gonna keep up and graduate. Just determined, you know, when I was in the seventh grade, the school that I graduated from became a consolidated high school. The students from Johnston, South Carolina, were assigned to Edgefield; the students from Bettis Academy, which was a private school between here and Edgefield, South Carolina, that school closed and the students had to come there to Edgefield County High School. And, of course, the students from the neighboring cities like Saluda had to come there as well and McKormick had its own school system and maybe Saluda did, too, but students did come out of Saluda County and rode the bus, you know, it was very rural where they came from. Anyway, the point I wanna make is that I could determine even in seventh grade students who came from Bettis Academy had, had more reading experience than we had, were familiar with more novels than we were, they were just smarter. They really were and it showed, that was motivational for me, too, and a challenge, I am determined, and I’m gonna keep up. I’m gonna be on the same page as these students; the students from Johnston appeared to have had very little education. Just kind of behind. (44:29)

Dr. Linville: Bettis was a private Black school?

Betty Tutt; um hum

Dr. Linville: And can you describe a little bit more Edgefield at that time when you were in junior high and high school.

Betty Tutt: Well, Edgefield was segregated 100% segregated. You had to, when you, when you went to the dentist you had to sit in the colored section. Of course, you know, you resented it, but there wasn’t anything you could do about it, not as a child. When you went to the doctor, like the dentist himself was very nice to you, but you still had – it was subclass, substandard, treated as a second-class citizen. We had to drink colored water downtown in Edgefield, if you drank water at all. The lunch counters at the drug stores that we had that served ice cream and sandwiches, you know, the White kids could sit down and eat and the Colored kids couldn’t. The movie theatre, you know, the Colored kids had to sit upstairs, the White sat down, but my daddy didn’t let us go that much to prevent any confrontation you might have had. I never saw anyone in the KKK, but somehow he was a brick mason and he worked in the city and in neighboring cities and if he heard that the KKK wanted to march, he’d make sure that none of my brothers and sisters let home that night. I’m the seventh of eight kids and so he, and out of two boys, so he just made sure that they didn’t go anywhere anyplace. But I have never seen a live KKK person that I was aware of, you know what I’m saying. I never seen that, my husband did, because they have

told the stories about how the KKK would march down on Gwinnett Street and his father had a barber shop right there on the corner, right on the corner of Gwinnett Street and Blount Ave. As a matter of fact, well it’s not still there because they sold it. The church purchased it and made it into a dinner [incomprehensible] out of it. Anyway, as far as somebody calling me the “n” word to my face, I never experienced it, I really didn’t. If I had I would’ve fought back with some nasty words, and I know I would have, because I had kind of a- what kind of personality would you say, it wouldn’t be defensive, but I would’ve defended myself- aggressive something outgoing- I don’t know, I wouldn’t have just tucked and run, I would’ve said something back. And I know I would have and I would today, but I never had that experience. (47:30)

Dr. Linville: And was it very different when you moved to Augusta from how you would describe Edgefield?

Betty Tutt: It was the same, had to ride in the back of the bus. We had to, my freshman year, 1961, if we went off campus, we had to go in groups of five and uh and the bus service was available, but Blacks had to sit in the back of the bus. I recall deliberately sitting up toward the front and then as the bus continued to move through the city the bus driver turned around and said, mam your gonna have to move, because we just don’t mix like that. I didn’t- I knew I would’ve gotten kicked out of school, so I just moved. I wasn’t no Rosa Parks. I might’ve gotten a whole lot of support if I had stayed there, I don’t know, but I didn’t. I was mad, but, you know, I just moved to the back of the bus. The lunch room- the lunch counters at Rollsworth store downtown, and I think somewhere else students from Paine College participated; I didn’t. But students here did, I know them. Malory Little, William Didley, some of them got cut I never participated in any of that. I didn’t go through the- what do you call it when you have training, because Martin Luther King did that, people in the civil rights movement with the Martin Luther King group, the nonviolence. They taught you how to get spit on and all that kind of stuff I- I didn’t participate in any of that. If I had participated in the marching and some of the sitting in, in the restaurants I would have needed that. You know, how to resist and how to remain nonviolent, personally I would’ve needed that. (49:41)

Dr. Christodoulou: So did you feel that your role was special or you had a particular role to play experiencing all these things. Did you feel a kind of urgency to do something through your job, through your teaching, through other ways?

Betty Tutt: No not necessarily, I didn’t have to prove anything. I didn’t live feeling like I- well in my adult years. Naturally, when you’re a kid you gotta prove to your parents that you have earned some kind of privilege to do something or you were very happy to bring home all A’s on your report card so you can get that pat on the back and all that glow that they have you when you went to church and did a speech on Easter Sunday, the longer it was of course the more Ames you got. Of course that built self-confidence, it just helped build your self-esteem and that happened to me and I was trying to prove something to people when I was a girl, but when I was- when I became a lady I was doing what I just wanted to do. And that was to become a successful person, not necessarily prove anything to anybody, because even this lead teacher thing that we are talking about I wasn’t trying to prove anything to anybody. Then this phone call, this unexpected phone call comes, would you like to be a lead teacher? Somebody had

recommended that. Someone had observed me somewhere and felt like I had the skills to become that. I never in my wildest dreams would have considered becoming a principal of a school people were saying you would be a good principal, blah blah blah blah blah. And it happened, you know; that makes sense. (51:49)

Dr. Christodoulou: Did you ever feel like going back to Edgefield and contributing there or did you just want to be in this area?

Betty tutt: I needed a little bit more city. Edgefield is so rural, I didn’t wanna go back there. We still own a house there and property. You know I don’t have any relatives in Edgefield anymore, everybody has died or moved away. But, I do go home to my roots and go to church; I don’t participate in anything else in Edgefield. It hasn’t grown, some of my, or one of my elementary school friends remained in Edgefield she got married and she stayed there. I guess they like that small town living, but it just isn’t me. I don’t need anything any greater than Augusta though, because I have a lot of family in Philadelphia. As a matter of fact that’s one of the things that I had planned to do, after I graduated college was to live in Philadelphia, move to Philadelphia, but I said to you early on in my story that I got married in my junior year and so my husband wasn’t interested in living in a big city. And so we stayed here, but I think Augusta has given me more opportunity than Philadelphia would have and some of my peers say that I would’ve gotten lost in the population in Philadelphia, because it’s so big. I don’t regret not going there to live, but I still have family there, lots of nieces and nephew, great nieces and nephews and great great nieces and nephews in Philadelphia. But it was a good experience for me when I was growing up, because from the time I was in the sixth grade and the older sisters were living there I was able to go to Philadelphia for the entire summer. So I had a first-hand experience of living in the south and in the north. And so that’s just a part of my story, but again Augusta is big enough for me. I like to go out of the city for various reasons, vacation etc., but living here is okay with me. I have a lot of friends. (54: 39)

Dr. Linville: I have just one more question. Do you mind? Do you still have time Mrs. Tutt?

Betty Tutt: Oh sure.

Dr. Linville: You mentioned a Nation at Risk and how it really shook you, sort of, to your foundations and made you say what else we need to be doing for our students. I wonder if you remember in the whole of the Richmond County school district what kind of conversations there were about a Nation at Risk. I know you said you got additional training because of it. Was everyone shaken by it or did some people feel it was an unfair assessment of schools?

Betty Tutt: Um, the superintendent was shaken by it because he, this was Dr. Straylick, as I said, staff development was boosted and I recall test scores going up, too. And apparently they went up really fast, because there was an audit of the Richmond County school system not long after that. I can’t tell you exactly how much time elapsed between a Nation at Risk and those test scores going up, because University of Georgia sent some folk in here to interview the various schools, to ask what did you do for the test scores to accelerate like they did. I’m not suggesting that anybody cheated, but the test scores did go up and an audit did happen. I don’t know what came of it, I never heard anything. The superintendent was always concerned about the editorial

page form the Augusta Chronicle, uh, Phil Kent he really was intimidated by Phil Kent. I never saw what Phil Kent looked like, but I sure knew his name and I looked for his editorials because Dr. Straylick really was intimidated by Phil Kent. If he hears me say that, he’ll probably kill me. But I don’t care if he hears it. I liked him, though, he was- he observed something in me, as well, because when I- he called me I was on a saxs team in Savannah, Georgia and I received a call from him and asked me to go to Collins Elementary School where I retired from, it had a new concept, Collins Community School. I had to do a heck of a lot of research to figure out exactly what a community school supposed to offer. It’s, uh, constituents and I never got that quite right either I don’t think. I’m not absolutely sure but I tried, really tried. We offered a lot of things for the community, particularly in the cultural arts, I brought ballet from Atlanta, we had Annie presented all kinds of things like that, A Raisin in the Sun. Just things, you know, that the community wouldn’t ordinarily participate in and it was free, the attendance wasn’t always what I wanted, what I would liked to have had. I don’t know if I should use the word expectation or not- well I am- I expected more participation in some of those activities, because they had not experienced it and it was free. And you would just assume that some of the reasons they didn’t attend the opera was because some people didn’t like the opera or ballet or because they don’t have the money to pay, but when it’s free and its right here in your neighborhood and you can walk and enjoy it… My expectations were not fulfilled, I was disappointed that I didn’t have more participation, but if we had a school play the attendance was abundant, just some observations. I tried, I gave it my best, gave it my all. (59:29)

Dr. Linville: Thank you, that’s all my questions. Did you have anything else Niki?

Dr. Christodoulou: Is there anything else you would like to add?

Betty Tutt: My last reflection is this, as I’ve said to you, the last few minutes in this interview that, um, … I did not pursue any of these things. As a matter of fact, when I taught here I retired it wasn’t because I pursued it, it was because I received a phone call. The doors were always knocking and I would say come in. And even this interview with the two of you. I was not expecting it, somebody recommended me. That’s honorable for me, quite honorable so thank you. I hope that I satisfied your curiosity or expectations or your whatever that you needed for this project. (1:00:48)