Page 1141 - Wordsmith A Guide to College Writing

busboy at a Connecticut country club and wrote
about his experiences for New York magazine.

The essay below was written for the New York

Times.

During a recent visit to my old junior high school, I came upon 1

something that I never expected to see again: the all-black lunch table

in the cafeteria of my predominantly white suburban junior high

school.

As I look back on 27 years of often being the first black person 2

integrating such activities and institutions as the college newspaper,

summer music camps, our suburban neighborhood, my eating club at

Princeton or my private social club at Harvard Law School, the
scenario that puzzled me the most then and now is the all-black lunch

table.

Why was it there? Why did the black kids separate themselves? 3

What did the table say about the integration that was supposedly 4

going on in home rooms and gym classes? What did it say about the

black kids? The white kids?

What did it say about me when I refused to sit there, day after day, 5
for three years?

Each afternoon, after fourth period, I was among 600 12-, 13- and 6

14-year-olds who marched into the cafeteria and dashed for a seat at