Students at West Charlotte High School were stunned to discover segregated doors leading into a classroom. One door was labeled “white entrance” and the other was labeled “colored entrance.” It was all part of a Black History Month lesson gone awry.
The teacher’s daughter spoke exclusively to television station WCNC in Charlotte. She said the point of the display was to illustrate segregation in the 1930’s.
“Her only thing was making sure that the kids knew, or could see, a visual of how things were back in the day,” LaQuinta Caldwell told the television station. “The purpose of the door was to show that Sears, which is a department store, was one of the first stores that allowed Blacks to shop with white people.”
The display was removed after the school was flooded with complaints.
“Just because it’s giving a moment of reality does not make it okay for anyone to have to go through anything similar to our ancestors,” said one citizen on Facebook. “It’s out of line.”
The school district issued a statement noting that the door decorations were not part of any approved lesson plans.
“The school district is required to provide social studies and history lessons to all our students in an age-appropriate manner. Teachers at West Charlotte High School decorated doors that displayed inappropriate content,” CMS said in the statement. “The activity is not aligned to state standards or with CMS curriculum and approved lesson plans.”
