The opportunity came one day while we were out in the fields picking cotton. A mission teacher named Miss Elma Wilson, from nearby Maysville, told my mother that the Presbyterian Church had established a mission for Negro children. She said that we would be allowed to go.

It seems as though I was the first of the young ones to sign up. The mission was a small church with homemade benches. It had a little table, some desks, a little pulpit; a little wood stove in the corner, and a blackboard on the wall. It was crowded with boys and girls. Most of them were crudely dressed.

But what affected me most was the kindness and patience of our teacher, Miss Wilson. She was very friendly and we felt that we could approach her at any time. She was also the first Black person we knew who the white people called "Miss."