A history lesson in school integration

Re “A Painful Lesson in Division,” Aug. 28

I experienced racial integration as a teacher in a rural northwest Alabama 12th-grade school. The first year it was voluntary because there were all-black schools available to students.

I had one black student in each of my five 11th-grade English classes. There were no problems. A few more joined them the following year. Everything went smoothly. Two black teachers joined our faculty the next year. Still no problems. When the all-black schools were closed, we were fully integrated and everything was as normal as it had always been. Everyone got along.

My daughter, a sophomore in a nearby city, said the national media came to her school the first day of integration, expecting a big story. There was none. I always felt guilty as I naively thought the South was the only part of the country where racial segregation was practiced. I guess that just goes to show you.

MARJORIE POE

Playa del Rey

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The article on integration in Inglewood is so simplistic, so easily black and white. If these two groups could get along, the world -- meaning the black and white world -- would be so much more peaceful. In the meantime, the article leaves out the group that had always been there, before blacks and whites arrived -- Mexicans. My family lived in the north part of Inglewood, behind Florence and Eucalyptus, in the old remaining rancho down the street from Rogers Park. From this neighborhood went relatives of mine, the Venegas, the Guerreros, the Mares and the Acevedos. Where is their story -- the real story that is much more accurate and holistic?

Shame on The Times for not reporting accurately and for misguiding the public. We really have no idea what Inglewood was like through this article.

JULIAN CAMACHO SEGURA

Whittier