There were three of us that graduated from Mr. Jamison’s school in 1911. And I finished at the top of my eighth grade class in Somerville school. Pop was pleased at that, I guess. But that was what he expected of me. He always told me to never be satisfied with a school mark of 95 when 100 was possible. This was not so much a matter of perfection as it was one of integrity. He was very passionate about fulfilling one’s maximum human potential.

I entered Somerville High School in 1912. During those years there was a raging debate among Blacks between the militancy of W.E.B. Du Bois and the conservatism of Booker T. Washington. It was expressed as a class of ideas regarding which educational path Blacks should take for us to make progress.

I don’t know what side my father came down on politically, but he insisted that education should not be limited to manual training. He believed that the freedom seeker must scale the heights of knowledge. So he insisted that I receive a classical education.