At the Stand Against Racism event, at the YWCA Princeton last Friday, those who discussed the documentary “The Princeton Plan” agreed that everyone needs to continue the conversations about how Princeton’s desegregation plan worked. It was 1948 when Princeton desegregated its classrooms by merging two schools — the school in the traditionally black neighborhood and the one on Nassau Street. Children in kindergarten and elementary school went to Nassau Street, and those in junior high went to Quarry Street. Some were jubilant about the plan’s success. Others resented the way it was done.

Continue the conversation at Not in Our Town’s regular “first Monday” session at the Princeton Public Library on Monday, May 7, at 7:30 p.m. With this series, Continuing Conversations on Race, Not in Our Town  offers a safe and confidential place to talk about difficult subjects.

 The topic planned for this month is very appropriate: tell about your first experience with racial differences. To Shirley Satterfield, this experience came in fourth grade when she left the Quarry Street school to go to the formerly all-white school. The students got along fine, said Satterfield. It was when the teacher replied to — when someone said “Shirley’s blushing” — “Negroes don’t blush.”

When was your first experience with racial differences and how did that affect your life?

Photos above by Leticia Fraga Nadler: Top: Henry Pannell, Shirley Satterfield, and Debra Raines. Below: Ann Yasuhara, Wilma Solomon, Marietta Taylor, Pat Ramirez, Barbara Fox, Larry Spruill. 


Photos below left to right: Cynthia Mendez and Kevin Wilkes, Patricia Fernandez-Kelly of Princeton University, and Kathleen Morolda of Cranbury Station Gallery,