Jim Blackburn

Coming from Cincinnati, I had been in integrated high schools and that, but Cincinnati even had schools that were probably 98 percent Black because they were more inner city, even though they were part of the Cincinnati public school system.  I went to a high school, Aiken High School, that was more in the suburbs.  So, it was predominantly White.  But there wasn’t any sense of segregation.  Although, when you went and played football at the inner city schools, you knew you were going to be playing — like at Central High, you were going to be playing a team that was all Black.  And I never sensed that as being a problem or anything.  I think that going downtown was an issue, only because downtown was a higher crime area than out in the suburbs.  And out in the suburbs, you’re very safe.  And it wasn’t a question of downtown being Black or White.  It was just that’s where you had to be careful.