Gone: Baby, Baby, It's a White World

“Baby Baby It's a White World” reflects on my first grade during the beginnings of integration. My first grade class had twenty-four white students and one black student. A ratio that didn't change until the sixth grade. Think about it from the position of a child.

The Gone Series looks back to 50 years to memories of my childhood in the racially divided mill town of Concord, North Carolina. It highlights events and circumstances that I believe reflect our social evolution and invite comparisons between the past and the present. These comparisons can be viewed literally or metaphorically.

When compiling subjects for this series I tried to think of memorable scenarios that spoke to issues of today and to my responsibilities as a parent and grandparent.Also, I wanted to evoke the perspective of a child experiencing a world created for them by adults. An adult influence, good and bad, not only creates the moment but steers generations to come.

This particular scene springs from first grade when Carolyn Rounds became the first and only black child in my first grade class. It underscores that Carolyn is entering a completely white world using all white furnishings and the first-grade book – Sally, Dick and Jane – on her desk.