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VALLEY — In appreciation of Black History Month, Chambers County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Sharon Weldon at last week’s meeting of the Kiwanis Club of Valley talked about the influence African-American teachers had on her from the years she started school at Lafayette Lanier Elementary through the time she finished at Valley High. She later went on to earn multiple degrees at the college level.

The Chambers County system fully integrated in 1971. Alabama public schools were under court order to do that, and any system that didn’t would lose federal funding.

“I was in the second grade at the time,” Weldon recalled. “I immediately noticed a difference from what I had heard from adults about the way things would be and the way they actually were. Had the schools remained segregated I would have missed out on the positive influence some really good teachers had on my life.”

Weldon’s second grade teacher was an African-American woman named Mary Jennings. “She is still living,” Weldon said. “I sometimes run into her while we are both buying groceries at Walmart. It’s always so good to see her. It was a long time ago, but she recognizes me as one of her former students. ‘Why, it’s Sharon Sides!’ she says, calling me by my maiden name. She was taller than me back then, and I used to look up at her. It’s the other way around now, but it’s always so good to see her. She impacted my life in a big way. She helped me make friends with people of different races and backgrounds.”

Weldon said she counted herself fortunate to have had another African-American teacher, Emily Thomas Williams, both at Lafayette Lanier and later on at Valley Junior High. “She was a legend,” Weldon said. “It was a blessing to be in her class. She was such a good teacher. She set standards to push you to do your best. I’m glad today that she got us to memorize passages from the Bible like the 23rd and the 100th Psalms.”

“From having been in her class, I can still recite portions of the Gettysburg Address,” Weldon said. “She gave us a greater appreciation of history. When I was at W.F. Burns I had Mrs. Crawley. She was such a poised, polished, had-it-all-together teacher. We learned from her the huge importance of writing well. She believed in beautiful handwriting. She had a very powerful influence on my life.”

Weldon recalls an African-American math teacher she had at Valley High. “Mr. Thornton was tough, but he cared about his students,” she said, “and Eugene Cooks and his drum sticks had a way of keeping you alert and at attention. I had Wanda Huguley in the 10th grade. She was my hero.”

Huguley was Weldon’s homeroom teacher and went the extra mile in keeping all of her students safe when there was some racial unrest at the school.

The trouble came about due to the cheerleader squad for the next year being all white. Some black girls had tried out for the squad, but none of them could get the votes they needed in a majority white school to make the squad.

This caused an emotion protest that could have easily led to violence had teachers and administrators not locked the classroom doors.

“The process for cheerleader tryouts changed the next year, and Mr. Riley became our principal,” Weldon said. “He was tough. We called him Buford T. Justice (the Jackie Gleason character on Smokey and the Bandit).”

Those who didn’t make the cheer squad were put on a pep squad.

“Coach Arthur Dunn had a big influence on everyone,” Weldon said. “He was so skilled at getting you to pay attention in class. He got you to listen to everything he said.”

Weldon credits Leonard Riley for steering her in the right direction as well. “He and my dad were in my business all the time,” she said. “I wanted to take it easy and breeze through my senior year, but Mr. Riley put me in all the advanced classes. It was not easy to take on that kind of load, but it got me to bear down. It was good for me, and I’m glad now I had to do it.”

She recalls the physics and chemistry classes she took as being especially tough. “Norman Thomas helped me through it,” she said. “He encouraged me to go into teaching. I was telling everyone at the time that my main goal was to get married and to have my own home.”

Another African-American teacher to have a big impact on her life was George McCulloh. “I had him in the 11th and 12th grades,” Weldon said. “I had him for Algebra II and Numerical Analytics. I learned things from him I could later incorporate into the math classes I taught when I became a teacher.”

Getting through Numerical Analytics required the students getting together and reasoning out the problems they’d been given to work through. “We’d sometimes do this on our lunch break,” she said. “As I look back on it now, I think he was challenging us to do this, to get together and figure out the right answers.”

Later on, it would be Mr. McCulloh who would interview Weldon after she’d graduated from college and was seeking a teaching position in Chambers County. “He put me through one of the most grueling interviews I’ve ever had,” she said, “but it was good for me. Lots of the thinking and planning I do goes back to the influence of the teachers I’ve had, many of whom were African-American. My life has been enriched due to the integration of the 1960s and 1970s. I feel positive about moving forward, building a new school and working together.”

A member of the club asked Weldon what she thought about the possibility of ending the federal Department of Education. “It scares me to death when that’s talked about,” she said. “Public schools can’t make it without federal dollars.”

Another member asked about cell phone use. “What needs to be done more than anything,” she said, “is to teach everyone, both young and old, proper phone etiquette. Everyone needs to know when you get it out and when you don’t.”