Full Text of the Excerpt

So, you started by saying you grew up just a few blocks from the school? LATRELLE MCALLISTER: About three blocks. PG: Lived there ever since you were born. LM: Ever since I was born, within shouting distance. Had the opportunity to play on the playground just below West Charlotte. Really, all my life, really, looked forward to going there. PG: Oh really. LM: Yes. PG: On this playground would there be kids in the neighborhood? LM: Neighborhood children. There’s a community center just below the school. So, we would play there. I went to Girl Scouts right across the street from West Charlotte High School. Just this long--. Well, all of my life was a part of our heritage, a part of the neighborhood. And, actually, most of my friends’ parents went to school there, too. It was just for me a no-brainer, as they say, that that is where I would go to school. When integration came about—I believe in 1971 or 1972—some of the young people in our neighborhood went to West Mecklenberg. But, as fate would have it, I was on the dividing line, I guess, for West Charlotte. I think Senior Drive was the dividing line. So, there was never a question about where I would go to high school.