Opinion: Black and white, at yesterday’s Hamilton High

To the editor: The two writers credit the “convocations” at Hamilton High School for promoting friendships between black and white students, but they say little about the effect that Project APEX had on academic performance there. (“Tackling a racial divide,” Opinion, Aug. 9)

I taught at University High School during the same period. Despite workshops to prepare teachers for the busing that soon followed, standards slowly began to erode because of the huge deficits that students brought to class through no fault of their own.

Uni, which was once rated among the best academic high schools in the state, is now barely distinguishable from the other high schools in the inner city. Correlation is not causation, but it’s impossible to deny the effects that busing and subsequent Third World immigration have had on the school.

Walt Gardner, Los Angeles

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To the editor: I am sure this heartfelt essay accurately reflects the experience of the authors.

However I do not remember Hamilton, during the years I attended, 1963 through 1966, to have had any noticeable racial divide.

Yes, the school then was majority white and Jewish, but at Louis Pasteur Junior High, which fed into Hamilton, there were a significant number of African American, as well as Hispanic and Asian, kids. I myself had friends of different colors and the issue never came up. I remember that as the norm.

Laszlo Regos, Santa Monica

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To the editor: My mother, a PTA district council president, was an early advocate of APEX, the pilot program of voluntary integration at LAUSD.

As a black Southerner who grew up under strict segregation laws, she

saw the disparities when she relocated to Los Angeles. Her triumphs and failures to help establish this unprecedented social experiment was certain fodder around the dinner table.

A key component of her advocacy, though, was that true individual student talent should be nurtured in a group setting. A kid who showed true promise and a real proven academic interest, whether from Watts, the Westside, East L.A. or the Valley, would have a far more enriching experience and a better academic outcome if immersed with other like-minded kids.

Although a citywide magnet school program was still years away, your authors are representative of her theory. I suspect that the “group therapy” helped bond them as friends as much as their obvious interest in science.

Michael Shaw, Los Angeles

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To the editor: I graduated from Hamilton in the summer of 1968, when it was a well-respected school in academics and sports.

I remember our school as integrated with many different ethnicities. I played varsity basketball for three years, and sports were integrated then. There were cheerleaders and other school champions whose many contributions made our school. We were simply friends, on and off the court, who liked and cared about each other.

When my kids attended Hamilton’s Music Academy many years later, they didn’t notice the differences. It was just a part of the fabric of Los Angeles that has been weaving itself for generations.

Michael Lippman, Beverly Hills

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