Bobbie Boyer

Welcome to “How to Act.” Produced by the New Mexico Black Education Act Advisory Council in partnership with New Mexico Black Education Act Bureau at NM PED, this limited-run mini-podcast series is part of a year-long celebration of the 100th year anniversary of Black History Month. Here at H2A we treasure and showcase stories of those who have and continue to enrich the Black educational landscape in New Mexico and beyond. Because Black History isn’t my history or your history…Black History is New Mexico History … and no matter who or where you are, if you are under the sound of this Pod, this history is for you. I’m your host, Hakim Bellamy and this is “How to Act.”

Our guest for this second episode is Mrs. Bobbie Boyer. A modern-day matriarch, Mrs. Boyer is the living legacy of the family that founded the first TWO Black settlements in New Mexico: Blackdom and Vado. After migrating west from Georgia in 1901, the Boyers founded the Blackdom settlement in 1903 and later–after Blackdom was abandoned as a result of drought–founded Vado in 1921. 

Here, Mrs. Boyer shares what it was like to go to school in New Mexico in 1945 or thereabouts…both before and after integration. Proudly matriculated from Paul Laurence Dunbar Elementary School, Mrs. Boyer gives a shoutout to her favorite teacher (Principal Grimes) and tells us how becoming the first (and possibly only) Homecoming “Princess” in the history of Gadsden Public Schools started out as a joke…until she messed around and won. 

This podcast is a partnership between the New Mexico Black Education Act Advisory Council and the New Mexico Black Education Act Bureau. Find out more about the New Mexico Black Education Act here https://web.ped.nm.gov/bureaus/student-support-services/black-education-act/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to How to Act, produced by the New Mexico Black Education Act Advisory Council in partnership with the New Mexico Black Education Act Bureau at NMPED. This limited-run mini podcast series is part of a year-long celebration of the hundredth year anniversary of Black History Month. Here at H2A, we treasure and showcase stories of those who have and continue to enrich the Black Educational landscape in New Mexico and beyond. Because Black History isn't my history or your history. Black history is New Mexico history. And no matter who or where you are, if you're under the sound of this pod, this history's for you. I'm your host, Hakeem Bellamy, and this is how to act. Our guest here on episode two of the pod is Miss Bobby Boyer. A modern-day matriarch, Miss Boyer is the living legacy of the family that founded the first two black settlements in New Mexico, Blackdam and Vado. After migrating west from Georgia in 1901, the Boyers founded the Blackdom Settlement in 1903, and later, after Blackdam was abandoned as a result of Drow founded Vado in 1921. Here, Miss Boyer shares what it was like to go to school in New Mexico in 1945 or thereabouts, both before and after integration. Proudly matriculated from Paul Lawrence Dunbar Elementary School, Miss Boyer gives a shout out to her favorite teacher, Principal Grimes, and tells us how becoming the first and possibly only homecoming princess in the history of Gadson Public Schools started out as a joke until she messed around and won.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

Our school was all black. And uh we had uh no uh numbers of kids because there were a number of black people around in this area who had children that were, you know, around my age group and uh younger and older. So uh we had quite a school, you know, just on our own. We didn't need any to be busted in or sent out for any other schooling. We had our we had our four room, we had our four-room school building, which consisted of first and first and second grade in one room, third and fourth in one room, uh, fifth and sixth in one room, uh seven and uh eight in one room. We had we had four, you know, you I'm sure people have heard of the four-room brick school building. Yes, that's that is what it was all about.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

And what and what year what year was that, Miss Boyer?

SPEAKER_01 2:50

Uh I started to school at six years old. I was born in 1939. So we add six years to that, and that makes about 45.

SPEAKER_00 3:03

Yeah, yes, yes, okay. You look you look too young for that, but I but since you said it, I believe it. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

And so my first grade, yes, I was 40, uh, you know, started first grade in 1945 at uh Paul Lawrence Dunbar Elementary School.

SPEAKER_00 3:22

That's amazing. And what and what were your other memories, you know, starting at Paul Paul Lawrence Dunbar, of course, but what were your other memories of being a black student in New Mexico at that time?

SPEAKER_01 3:33

Well, it was it was okay as in in the school because, like as I said, we were predominantly black, so we didn't have any problems. We had a principal, and I always like to recognize her name. Her name was Jill Bonnie Grimes, and she was from uh not not New Mexico, she was from another state. But from what I could understand as I grew older, she was one of the better principals that were in the area, even though she was black, but she was very interested in us, and we learned a lot and we did a lot. As a matter of fact, I have to tell this little story because I told it, I've given it to everybody. They decided, you know, all those little blackkies, what do they know? So the state decided that they would do a test on us. Guess what? We we scolded, we were in the higher group. They couldn't believe, you know, they didn't expect that because you know how they send us the secondhand books, the secondhand everything, and they were shocked. And I attribute that to Mrs. Mrs. Grimes being, you know, on top of it, and several other teachers we had, but she was the most no to me in my, you know, in my life, she was the most noted person.

SPEAKER_00 5:02

I love that. Shout out to shout out to Principal Grimes. Um, what is why do you think it's important? Because we're talking history, right? We're talking about that it's important. We're talking about the history of how education uh has or hasn't evolved um in New Mexico since then. In your opinion, why is it so important for this kind of history to be taught in New Mexico schools today?

SPEAKER_01 5:27

Uh because uh now that the integration process has gone through, a lot of children didn't realize that that's how we had to start out and that we were on the top of the list, you know, because of you know, we had we had several noted uh teachers that kept us on top of the list. I don't care if they get it, if they would give us a book and you have to tape it together, so what? As long as you can read it, and she could tell us the factors and factors about you know the book and and education. And and one of the and and I like to uh interject, one of the most important things that we did during the year is during Black History Month, we were we the only we were the only black school in this, you know, particular area, and they would always ask uh if we could do a black history program. So even back that early, uh she would, she and along with the other teachers, we would get a program together, and we would, you know, go go to the different schools so that they knew, you know, something that this little school, this little school over here, Dunbar, Paul Lawrence Dunbar School, is about not only American history, but about black history. The I should say the world history. And this is the thing that I, you know, I I have run into since uh I have grown up. The children, I I I was also a Sunday school teacher for 60 years, and I all of the all of the children, the only person that they knew was Martin Luther King. That is the difference as as to what we learned about all of these black uh educators and noted, noted persons, you know, at our little uh school, our little fore room school.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

I love that. And you know, um I didn't tell you guys, but I'm a poet. So, and I remember my my parents raised on the East Coast, both my parents are ministers, my father's no longer with us, but um one of the first poets I knew the name, one of the first black poets I knew the name of was Paul Lawrence Dunbar. And I was like, man, and I didn't know, I didn't know, you know, when I was whatever, six, seven, eight years old, I didn't know I was going to be a poet. But uh, but that had always stuck with me. It was like, wow, so we so we do that, we do that. Well, maybe one day I might do that. And you know, and then you know, 20 years later, uh, I'm a poet too. So uh when I heard that you went to that school, I was immediately excited. I think I did a book report. In fact, it was one of those poster board presentations on Paul Lawrence Dunbar. Um like you said, you know, not just for the education of myself and other black students, mainly for the edification of the white students I was going to school with, because there was no way they were gonna know who Paul Lawrence Dunbar was unless I did my little book report presentation in that class. And that's what I hear you saying. Like going around to the other schools was A, showing them how smart our black students are, but also B bringing knowledge that they probably weren't getting from their teachers in the into their classrooms.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

We were very fortunate with our teachers because uh we we gained uh you know, teachers who had knowledge, and therefore we were out we were able to extend. No, we don't just know Paul Law Paul Lawrence Dunbar, we know other black people, we know other American people uh uh you know in in the education system, and that's why a lot of people are are we really shocked about our school. I don't know what they expected the teachers and teachers or what we were supposed to be, but uh that's why it was such an outstanding, you know, school as far as I'm concerned. Like for instance, let me give you an instance when the schools were uh integrated. Well, they decided that uh we're gonna have to give them kids a test and see see what did they learn in the team. And we were able, um uh myself and several others were able to go and take the test and be placed in higher group classes. Because in that some with some people, you know, of other races, that didn't set too well with them because they didn't expect that from us. But I would like to say, and several of us were on the honor road all of our years of you know, the integrated school, and I was also uh on the National Honor Society. That just shows you that you know, being coming from our little black school, we were excelled more, and I would attribute it to that we had smaller classes and they were able to spend more time with us, and so we dug a little deeper than just the regular uh school districts.

SPEAKER_00 11:03

I think that's still true today, like just and not even out of any nefarious intent. Um, obviously, racism persists, and and and our students sometimes are made to feel invisible uh because we don't show up in the curriculum. But I think what you're more speaking to is just when you have a class size of 30, 40 people, um, and you're the person who's not like the others, it's easy just to get lost. You're not getting the attention that every student should get, not just our students, right? Every student should get that intention, that attention, but um, but you're more you're less likely to get it if you are, you know, not like the others in a very large classroom.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

Yes. And let me attribute uh to our parents, because you know, uh a child cannot go any place unless their parents are in a position to want them to go someplace, and the way they do that is by you know being involved in everything. And uh I'll tell you this little story too. I've spoken of several times in my interviews. Now, uh our parents, they said, okay, now your kids can come on down here to our school. You know, I'm at school, but they they didn't put us in the they didn't put us on the buses in this on down there by ourselves, they went with us to show them that we I want my child to excel and be, you know, where you think we where you think we are not. And the the amazing thing, you know, the the testing again, they found out, oh, they must have had some white teachers. No, they were black, but we are we excel. And you know, when uh we were able to enter the school just without putting us in a what a sub-level class, should I say? Yeah, okay. No, we were able to just go right in the classes and you know, and and go higher than uh a lot of the kids that were supposed to be, you know, uh much more above us.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

I I love I love that you said that because I I think when we I would say me, I'm gonna speak for myself. I'm 47, and so I think that what I was always taught is that, you know, in a schools got integrated. Brown versus board education happened, schools got integrated and and they they merged the schools. Um, I later learned in law school that that actually hurt black educators because when they mer when they sent all the black kids to the white schools, they did not bring the black teachers, right? They they were out of a job, right? Like, you know, so I just learned that like a couple years ago. Um, but then they also kind of tell the story in a way where it's like, and now everything was better for the black kids because they were in the white schools. And I think they're they're insinuating that we had a lesser education, like you said. And then when we got to that school, we were better off for it because now we were getting as good an education as the white kids. When that is not the case, like we we actually, like you said, we transferred in and they moved us up grade levels because we were doing so well um at that little four four-room schoolhouse that by the time we came into their school, we were ahead of the students that were performing there. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

I love that, and and uh of course, and and like I I keep referring to Miss Grimes, but I have to because you know she was just of that caliber, just like you said, of all of our black teachers, and and the others were, you know, their education were well, but she was the only black teacher that was able to move into the integrated school. So I have, you know, I have quite a few little interesting stories, you know, uh as I grew up to tell.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

When I when I come back, when I come back and meet with you, preferably in person, we're gonna have to write that book on Miss Grimes. She gonna she won't we wanna get her a book. So they need to do a book on her.

SPEAKER_01 15:09

No, no, no, they were they were just uh I'm sorry, that she was just an exception.

SPEAKER_00 15:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

And and like I said, you know, there were the other teachers, they they were good, but since she was and she was chosen as principal, that is that that's that is probably why she worked, you know, a little harder and a little longer than, you know, okay, so I'm a teacher, and I'll follow this curriculum as they have it, have it uh written here in this district. But whereas, you know, she went over and above what uh, you know, that's why that's why I like to give her credit. And a lot, and this isn't and another little thing I'll tell you. You know, back in that day, you know, I know a lot of our children did not uh uh finish school or even go as high as grade school because uh the parents were so busy trying to work and and keep uh keep a living for you. Now, I know people probably will say that lady said lion. No, I'm not. Out of all of the black children that were around here in this community, I could I could say I'm this is up in the number, I could tell you maybe five of them dropped out of school, which you know to mean that was an amazing feedback, you know, in that day too.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

Wow. Because yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:37

So this little town, we have a lot of uh, we have a lot of interest in because our parents were interested in us and wanted us to get education, and a lot of us went to uh college too, also here in the making, you know, because of the support from our teachers and our and our parents, and also I can't leave out religion because see on Sunday mornings, where did you find yourself in in church? Like I said, you know, that school was integrated, and uh there were quite a few blacks, but my senior year in high school, uh my boyfriend was on the football team, and somebody uh, you know, it was a joke to start with, you know. Let's let's let's uh nominate uh body for uh football uh princess. And uh and he said, okay. So they nominated me. I won.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

I know you did. I know that's right.

SPEAKER_01 17:48

I was the only I was the only black princess that they have ever had at that district is still sans to the Gaston School District in Anthony, New Mexico, and that is still history today.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

However, Miss Boyer's talent for making history didn't stop there. Oh no, she also sure knows how to pick them. Her late husband Roosevelt just made some more New Mexico history in recent months.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

My husband, Roosevelt, Africanus Boyer Jr. His they have changed the name of the school from uh uh Paul Lawrence Dunbar, the building, to his name. And this was a recent, this is yes, this was this is a recent recent accomplishment. And every year we do a black history program. And I I just hey, I hope that I I hope it gets nationwide because the Boyer family, if they are very big family, and uh we have we have now that's one of the fifth steps out of all the hard work and and the black community and everything that we finally have become because the school has been changed from Paul Lawrence Dunbar to Rosedale. Quite a bit of history in that little community call bottle and that school called Paul Lawrence Dunbar, but that's the latest one.

SPEAKER_00 19:19

We want to thank Miss Bobby Boyer and her daughter Charlotte for making time, sharing stories, and making history. We look forward to bringing you more stories from the front lines of black education in New Mexico on the next episode of How to Act. Thank you for listening.