By Deltonia N. Shropshire
Washington (MC) -- The Smithsonian erected a wall of historic photos as an announcement
for the forthcoming National Museum of African American History and Culture
(2015). The iconic image of young Jacquelyn
Bond is among those located at 14th and R St. NW. Here she is flanked by Goldie Frinks, aide to
Dr. Martin Luther King.
In honor of Black History Month,
there are those within Montgomery County Public Schools that made a difference
in the lives of those once considered inferior, well before Affirmative Action
was even considered.
Generations of willful women
compounded within the heart, mind and spirit of one. Her name is Jacquelyn Ann Bond-Shropshire,
MA., MBA.. She was an adept business
teacher within Montgomery County Public Schools for thirty eight years. However, prior to her role as an educator,
she was called to serve as a freedom fighter within her community in North
Carolina, where by most accounts the civil rights movement began.
Jacquelyn was born on April 15,
1948. Her parents by all standards were
revolutionary. Her father Styron C.
Bond, Sr. was a retired buffalo soldier who had served in World War II as a
Sergeant in the 307 infantry of the Army.
He was also the town’s first black entrepreneur-owning a grocery store,
a barbershop, a beauty salon and a bail bondsman business. Bond’s mother was a school teacher that
hailed from a community of free Black and Native Americans. Annie James Bond was from a family that had
never know the indignations of slavery and servitude experienced by most other
black families of the time.
Unfortunately, at that time the only work available for well educated
women of color were in smaller towns.
These tiny towns were often far from where they lived and paid very
prejudicial salaries. Smaller towns
required long stints away from the family.
In her case, Annie had to travel well over one hundred miles to get to
her place of employment. She would often
come home once a month to visit family and friends only to leave again on
Sunday evenings.
Jacquelyn is the middle child
born between the birth of her two brothers Styron Curtis Bond, Jr. (Mickey) and
Clinton Bond. Peggy Jean, was born eight
years after Jacquelyn.
In the seventh grade, “Jackie” aspired
to become a teacher. Having had some of
the best influences during elementary and high school, astute English teachers
relegated to teaching in segregated schools would motivate the academic pursuit
of English as a minor-during Miss Bond’s undergraduate experience at North
Carolina Central University. In honor of
her father, who passed away when she was sixteen, the determined young woman
majored in business and received her first Master’s degree from her
undergraduate alma mater, in 1972.
However prior to the age of
sixteen Jackie had already lived the life of another type of soldier. A Freedom Fighter!! At fifteen, Jackie Bond would be the youngest
civil rights leader in her hometown of Williamston, NC. The newspaper headlines, books and radio announcements
kept the young girl enthralled with the current events that were impacting all
people. She had determined at a very
early age that she had to make a difference in one way or another. Being served food from the backdoors and
small windows of restaurants, being denied basic customer service and human
courtesy , being denied access to common necessities and resources merely
because of skin color, was unjust. The
indignation needed to cease within her lifetime. All she knew was that she could not allow her
unborn children to endure what she and other ‘different’ people had gone
through.
Several instances occurred that
served as the catalyst that would determine Jackie’s efforts to end
discrimination in North Carolina particularly, but nationally as well.
The free thinking young girl was
almost killed when the rambunctious sheriff decided to use electrified cattle
prongs (used to shock livestock while herding) to make the force of
demonstrators move away from the train tracks.
The electrified stick made contact with Jackie’s stomach. The scar is still visible nearly fifty years
later.
On another occasion, Jackie
vividly recalls having her parents sleeping in the car with her while on a long
road trip from N.C. to Florida. Blacks
were not allowed to sleep in hotels.
There were very few hotels owned and operated by Black people along any
main roads within the South. Many
entrepreneurs of color were fearful that their businesses would be burned or
worse-they themselves would be targeted for lynching. Independent black people were considered a
threat, and were often killed as a result.
Jackie and her brothers had also
grown up hearing the horrific tale of how her great grandfather as well as
their grandfather had lost their lives, at the hands of violent mobs for merely
speaking to white women. One of the two
ancestors literally lost his head for being kind to someone who was ‘off
limits’. The event sent a clear message
to all of the townspeople that Black men were not to court white women, yet white
men frequently TOOK whatever they wanted from any black man or woman.
Jackie was also subject to arrest
on more than one occasion. On one such
run-in, the teenager was incarcerated and tried for using a “White Only”
Laundromat. When brought before the
court, she was asked by the judge, “Didn’t you know that you were going into a
WHITE ONLY establishment?”, Jackie responded with savvy, “No sir, I thought
that White Only meant White CLOTHES only”! Her father just shook his head and
left the courtroom stating “She doesn’t need my help. She can handle herself”. Having been forced to stay in a jail cell
prior to her hearing Jackie heard news of an upcoming March on Washington, where
the honorable Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was going to speak. She determined that she was going to be
present for the event. Somehow the young
freedom fighter encouraged her father to sponsor one of the three charter buses
that would head to Washington, D.C. for the monumental occasion. Jackie had just turned fifteen and was not
allowed to go to Washington, D.C., alone.
Sister Ella Mae Ormond (the community Auntie) agreed to chaperone the
group so that any of the young adults could also attend. Jackie Bond had to be there in the
midst. Among all other individuals who
were poised to do what could be done nonviolently to effectuate equality within
this country.
As a result of the social
deviance exacted by clusters of determined sacrificial young people-the fifties
and sixties yielded many liberties including desegregated schools. These luxuries are often taken for granted
today. These passionate youth changed
the minds and hearts of American who had forgotten that the Constitution applied
to ALL Americans regardless of the circumstances that brought them to the land
confiscated from the Native Americans.
To ensure that the long hard fought battle contributed to the Civil
Rights victory, Jacquelyn began teaching in the school system that supported
the area that she vowed to return and live while visiting the District of
Columbia during the 1963 March on Washington.
She taught two years in Chapel Hill, N.C. and her home in Martin
County. From there she taught two years
in Connecticut suburbia. Bond-Shropshire
would later tell her children that “SILVER SPRING just sounded magical”, an
immediate draw to the area for a hopeful teen.
She began teaching in Montgomery County Public Schools in 1974. She ended her forty two year career in the
Spring of 2012. Mrs. Shropshire (as she
was referred to during her career), taught accounting and various business
classes during her thirty two years at Montgomery Blair High School. The veteran teacher completed the last six
years of her career at Einstein Senior High School.
Jacquelyn Ann Bond Shropshire
continues to serve as an education advocate.
She is a MD state delegate for the National Education Association
(NEA). Ms. Shropshire is also a member
of the Montgomery County Education Association, a life member of the Maryland
State Education Association and the NAACP.
She is a golden life member of the dynamic social justice sorority,
Delta Sigma Theta, Incorporated where she has received a national award in 1990
as Maryland’s State Delta Teacher. She
is a member of the National Council of Negro Women, as well.
She is the proud mother of a
daughter Deltonia and a son Dee Shropshire.
Shropshire is also the grandmother of two vivacious granddaughters Blair
Logan and Brooke London Shropshire.
Jackie continues her civil rights advocacy through public speaking and
community service. She still battles in
the courtroom when the occasion calls for it.
About the Author:
Deltonia N. Shropshire is a freelance writer, educator, and activist living in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
No comments:
Post a Comment