FORMER STUDENTS OF ALL-BLACK SCHOOL RECALL VALUES

Perhaps it is because more than four decades have passed since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in its Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education decision, that public schools must be integrated. The years have allowed many of the former students of all-black schools to develop a perspective tempered by time and experience.

There was a nostalgic quality to the recent reunion of students who had attended the all-black Sumner High School in Cairo, Ill. They talked of strict discipline, strong values, camaraderie and the sense of extended family that existed in all-black schools of 40 years ago.

Of all the benefits, the graduates stressed discipline, a quality that seems to be lacking in too many of today's schools. Some of those at the reunion talked about schools systems today that can't distinguish between discipline and abuse.

It may seem odd that former students at all-black schools would find such bedrock values when they get together with others who shared the same experience. After all, the battles over school integration and civil rights were hard-fought.

But the alumni of Sumner look beyond the diffenences in skin color. They look inside the individuals who have sought to succeed and to participate fully in society.

One of the reunion attendees said he hoped graduates of all-black schools would pass on their experiences to future generations. That is exactly what such reunions can accomplish.