A Very Personal View of History

New Film Covers Desegregation at Great Mills High

The nasty whispers behind her back, the threats of violence against her and her prom date -- those are Joan Groves Briscoe's not-so-fond memories of her senior year at Great Mills High School.

In 1959, Briscoe said, segregation still defined the lives of many living in rural St. Mary's County. So when she and her brother, Conrad, sued for and won admittance to Great Mills, the two black teenagers were greeted with anything but open arms.

"I wasn't comfortable," said Briscoe, now 67 and living in Landover. "When I'd come to school in the morning, a lot of them were talking about me and telling me that they didn't want to be bothered with me. I couldn't ask them for help with homework or anything like that because they weren't interested in that. . . . I just thank the Lord that He got us through that year."

Briscoe's story is among the many that make up the hour-long documentary "With All Deliberate Speed: One High School's Story," which will be screened at 7 p.m. today in the Great Mills High auditorium at 21130 Great Mills Rd. The documentary, produced by St. Mary's College of Maryland professor Merideth Taylor, traces the integration of Great Mills from the late '50s to the early '70s, drawing on nearly 30 interviews. It will be followed by a panel discussion.

Briscoe was among the first black students to attend Great Mills. Her father sued to gain admission for her and her brother nearly five years after the landmark Supreme Court ruling Brown v. Board of Education, which called for the integration of public schools. The documentary's title is a reference to the Supreme Court's order that public schools integrate "with all deliberate speed."

"They had to find somebody who was willing to take the case to court and children who would be willing to go to school there and give it a try," Briscoe said, adding that her father was active in the NAACP. "We knew at that particular time that we would be doing something that was particular and something that was very necessary. In terms of how it was going to impact history . . . I didn't really think about it like that."

Taylor, the St. Mary's professor, said the inspiration for the project came from a sabbatical she took in 2003 and 2004 to work with Great Mills High students and teachers on an oral history project. A professor of theater and dance, Taylor had always been interested in civil rights and social justice issues, and tracing the integration of Great Mills seemed a good fit.

Taylor said interviewing for the documentary illuminated how differently people remember Great Mills' integration, which she said lacked the violence and tumult that some other schools experienced.

"This is not a story about dogs and water hoses and police, but it doesn't mean that those people's experiences are any less interesting, really," she said.

Taylor also interviewed white students who experienced integration at Great Mills, including Jane Sypher, who later returned as an English teacher. Sypher, now 60 and living in California, said that in high school she always thought having black students as classmates "was just fine." In fact, she said, her senior class of 1967 elected a black student as the vice president of the student government association.

"It didn't seem unusual," she said. "We ought to all be going to school together. It ought to be whatever district you live in, there ought to be excellent educational options."

The documentary, which had a budget of $9,600, was funded with money from the PNC Foundation Legacy Project and the Maryland Humanities Council, Taylor said. The screening today is free and open to the public.