In September, when the first breezes of fall start to push the summer haze off the mountains, the days are pretty glorious. It’s a time of year that makes a decision to live in Western North Carolina obvious. One’s feet are a little faster on the path, and the idea of taking on new projects sounds pretty good. In Old Fort, down in McDowell County, back in 1955 a group of school children decided to start the year in a new way.
Fifteen months earlier, the Supreme Court had rendered a decision in Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka Kansas ending state-sponsored school segregation. Rather than integrate the Old Fort school, McDowell County tore down the black school and began taking African-American children to a consolidated, still segregated school in Marion, 15 miles away. The children of Old Fort wanted to go to school in their own town, just like the white children did. On September 8, 1955 they began walking to the white school to enroll.
That morning, Albert Joyner was getting ready for his job as a hospital assistant at the VA. Out of the window in his house, Albert saw the children walking in the direction of the school and understood immediately what they were up to. Seeing that they had no adult escorts, he hastily put on his one suit and went to join them. They were met at the door of the school by the McDowell County Superintendent of Schools and hundreds of other white faces.
The children did not end up in school that day, but Albert Joyner ended up in a city fountain, pushed there by a member of the crowd. He also ended up with an arrest warrant, small thanks for wanting to help improve the lives of children. The warrant was later dropped, and the man who put Albert in the fountain eventually dropped in to the VA Hospital as a patient. His attendant was Albert Joyner, and of course they knew who each other were.
Albert decided he would treat this man as well as any man who had been under his care. He knew that how he responded to this situation should not be a reflection of the other man’s character, it would be a chance for Albert Joyner to demonstrate his. It is that quality of character which 1,200 people celebrated today at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. prayer breakfast. Albert Joyner was too ill to join us today, but he got a standing ovation anyway.