Sandy Royster still calls himself an activist, but he would be the first to admit that his style has changed over the years.
”I started demonstrating in early 1961 with the lunch-counter sit-downs when I was a sophomore at North Carolina A&T in Greensboro.” A hallmate of his, Jesse Jackson, was not to arrive on campus and join the action for several more months.
The sit-ins and marches of those early years in the civil-rights movement no longer suit a more mellow Royster, now an environmental engineer for Commonwealth Edison, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, a Vietnam veteran, a father and 18-year resident of Glen Ellyn. And times have changed; the noisy strategies of the `60s must be fine tuned to the `80s.
So, earlier this year, when Royster turned his attention to the low numbers of minority teachers and females in decision-making positions in Glenbard School District 87, the sit-downs, demonstrations and marches of his younger days were far from his mind.
”I`ve become involved with equal opportunities for women and minorities of all races, but as we grow older, we learn to use the administrative process. I looked at the numbers of minority teachers. There was only one black male in the whole district, and I found that in the last 20 years, there have never been more than two black teachers.
”In my opinion, Dr. (Robert) Stevens (superintendent of Glenbard High School District 87) and the members of the school board are reasonable, educated people, people who want to do what is right. I think they never really looked at it because nobody had ever complained before.”
Since Royster`s complaint, the district has added two minority members to its staff of 500: one teacher at Glenbard East and one head basketball coach at Glenbard West who teaches part-time in another district.
Stevens said, ”First and foremost, we hired these individuals because they were the best-qualified people we could find. We are pleased to have that quality to interface with our kids.”
Said Royster, ”They`ve listened. They`ve heard the message.” He added,
”They may have had all this planned to start with. I really don`t care. The bottom line is that there are two more role models for my children in District 87. We`d like to see even more black teachers; we think they probably relate better to our kids. Although we all come from similar socio-economic backgrounds, there is still a difference in ethnic backgrounds.”
Darwin Walton is a Lombard writer who believes all children benefit from seeing teachers of many races. Walton, who is black, taught elementary and junior high grades in the Elmhurst schools for 18 years. ”When white children are introduced to people of another race who function as well as or maybe better than other people in their lives, they have a more realistic sense of what to expect when they enter the real world outside the classroom,” said Walton.
Her children`s book ”What Color Are You?” (Path Press, Inc., Chicago, 1973), explores the idea that ”the color of the skin has nothing to do with what people are basically all about.” That message is important, she said,
”because the only way children can truly come into contact with problem-solving techniques is to understand that color has nothing to do with anything, except variety, beauty, identification and protection from the sun.
