Roland and Ronald Woodfolk

RONALD W:  I don’t want to give the impression that the teachers, the teachers at Burley l were good.

ROLAND W: Yes, they were.

RONALD W: And they provided the nurturing, because they also, not only we were their students, but they knew our parents.  And some of the teachers taught our parents, you know? But they were good.  I was in a panel, I think, at the first anniversary of the Charlottesville Twelve integration at Venable High School, and the moderator asked me, asked the question, did integration hurt or help the black community?  And I said, it did both.  It helped the black community at the time because that was the only avenue that we had to get decent jobs and decent wages.  I said, but it hurt the black community, because there were no more -- we lost the nurturing part.  And in the developing of children, nurturing goes a long way.  I think it goes further than being educated, nurturing, feels like you belong, and you do well.  And when we went to Lane, the nurturing part was not there.

ROLAND W: That’s true.  I mean I think the teachers cared.

RONALD W:  Some of them cared.

ROLAND W: Yeah, some of them.  And, but basically, like my brother said, the nurturing wasn’t there.  I can’t say, I didn’t feel like I didn’t belong, because within my character, I knew I belonged, and nobody was gonna tell me any different.  But I think sports went a long way of being more accepted than it would have been if we weren’t involved in sports.  Okay.