Back Where I Come From

I always enjoy listening to this Kenny Chesney song, which he has regularly done in his live shows.  It does strike a chord as everyone has a place in their hearts where they are from.  That never really goes away, even if some try to get away.

I like to say that I have 2 hometowns, Houston and Austin.  But when I hear this song, I do think of "Where I Come From" which leads me to Austin.  We moved there when I was 14 and I went to Austin High all 4 years.  Back then, Austin was a third the size of what it is today.  The city itself has started growing at the sides but was still pretty compact.  Interstate 35 had served one of its redline purposes by separating the city West from East and de facto segregation ensued.

The big political issues of my day was forced busing to desegregate the Austin ISD.  When I questioned my father about "what would happen?" if I had to be bused, he said "We'll just move you to a private school".  Other that threatening periodically to send me to military school, that was the only time we ever discussed private school.  It was generally assumed then that the public schools were better than the alternative.

In the end Austin High was considered diverse enough, as we were 60% Anglo, 30% Hispanic and 10% black due to drawing from 3 different parts of town, West, Central and South.  No busing for the Maroons.

The school board had previously desegregated the junior highs by creating new 6th grade centers, and making the junior highs only 7th and 8th grades.  Baker Middle School was the result for our side of town.   My classmate Scott McClellan wrote of it nicely in his book.

As to the high schools, the answer was simply to bus from one All-Minority school, Johnston H.S. on the east side, to one All-White school, Anderson H.S. on the northwest side.  It was generally agreed to be a failure on both sides.  The IDEA schools in Austin are still picking up the pieces from the Anderson/Johnston busing.

Interesting, Anderson High School was the original name of the segregated high school in Austin pre Brown v. Board of Education.  We loved to trumpet that Austin High was the "only high school" and the "oldest high school" but no one ever discussed the forced segregation that allowed that to develop.