Jackson, Miss.: the reality of race

Lanier High School remains all black, more than 50 years after school desegregation became the law of the land.  Its principal, Stanley Blackmon runs a tight ship.

But there are realities and Lanier has a certain reputation.

Amanda Furge, student: I think that Lanier gets a bad rep.

Tom Brokaw, NBC News: Why?

Furge: Because of the location.  Our school is in the middle of the ghetto.

Brokaw: A tough neighborhood?

Furge: Tough neighborhood.  And, the kids here, people assume that they are the product of their environment.

Jackson Mayor Frank Melton spends a lot of time patrolling this neighborhood.  He’s appointed himself a kind of “official vigilante.”  He is controversial—but he’s identified one issue that almost everyone agrees is at a crisis point:

Riding along with Frank Melton

Frank Melton, mayor: I don’t want to embarrass anybody but I want you all to be honest with me ok.  Where’s your daddy?”

BOY #1: “In Chicago”

MELTON: Where’s your daddy?

BOY #2: “Prolly at work somewhere”

MELTON: Where’s your daddy?

BOY #3: ‘in Chicago”

MELTON: Where’s your daddy?

BOY #4: “at home”

MELTON: Where’s your daddy?

BOY #5: in Baton Rouge.

MELTON: Where’s your daddy?

BOY #6: “in jail.  My daddy’s in jail.”

MELTON: “your daddy’s in jail. I rest my case. I rest my case.

One of the many kids who are growing up without a father is Manuel Sturghill.  When we first met him in October of 2005, Manuel was the tallest player on Lanier’s basketball team, a team that had won six state championships and in 2005 sent a player to the NBA.  Manuel has the talent to play in college, but he is struggling to stay on the high school team—and to stay in school.

Manuel is 17, a sophomore.  His father and mother split when he was little, then one day, his father just abandoned him.

Brokaw: when was the last time you saw him?

Manuel Sturghill, student: Probably when I was about six years old. Five or six years old.  It really just scared me and I was sorta confused I’m like, ‘Okay when he coming back, what’s wrong with him, why he leave, what happened to make him leave.’ Thought it was something I did.

Grace Sturghill, Manuel's mom: I want him to go to school.

Manuel’s mother, Grace, has not been able to provide much direction either. She is addicted to crack cocaine.  That is a source of constant stress for Manuel.

Sturghill: She can be the best person in the world. Sometime when she’s messed up she get mad and throw things, say different things she really don’t mean, starts hollering, I just don’t like to be around.

Nationwide, less than 40 percent of black children live with both parents, as compared to almost 80 percent of white children.  Our unscientific sampling of honor students at Lanier suggests it makes a big difference.

Brokaw: How many of you had a father that who was a big influence in your life? Luther, your father?

Luther: He always pushes me to go forward in life.  He doesn’t want me to settle for less.

Manuel and his mom live with Manuel’s grandmother Betty Smith.  She’s been the one constant in Manuel’s life.  Mrs. Smith worked for more than 40 years at a company that made caps and gowns for high school graduations—including Lanier’s.  She never made more than 8.25 dollars an hour, but Betty and her late husband managed to raise seven kids and pay off their house.  Now, however, money is very tight.

Betty Smith, Manuel's grandmother: No retirement.

Brokaw: No retirement program?

Smith: No retirement program.

Brokaw: So what do you live on?  Social Security?

Smith: Social Security.

Brokaw: And that’s all?

Smith: That’s all.  Nothing else. 

Many blue collar employers in Jackson have shut down. Mrs. Smith knows Manuel will need a good education to make a decent living.

Smith: I want him to graduate from high school.  I want Manuel to have a good life. If I was up I would shake it in him.  You know I would get it in him. I don’t care how big he is, he not too big for me. 

He may not be too big for her, but Mrs. Smith can’t provide the discipline she once did.  She had a stroke two years ago and now she depends on Manuel to help her in and out of bed every day, to help her eat.

Sturgill: I can do a lot of things that people don’t think I can do. I’m kind I’m sweet and everything I can do anything you want me to do for you.

But Manuel resists authority—especially male authority.  He chafes under the discipline of Lanier’s hard-nosed basketball coach.

Smith: I tell him anywhere he going, he can’t make it without discipline.

Just down the street from Manuel’s house, an infant is starting life without his father, while a teenager is trying to learn to be a mother—and earn the high school diploma she knows is crucial to her future.

Alicia Ruffin is 17, a senior at Lanier.  When we first met her in November 2005, her baby, Jamerie, was just four weeks old and she had not been back to school since he was born.

Alicia lives with her mother and stepfather. They both work but their income puts the family just above the poverty line.  Baby Jamerie has added to the financial strain.

Brokaw: Now, Alicia.  Here’s a tough question:  Did you think about all this when—

Alicia Ruffin, senior and mother: I already knew. 

Brokaw: Did you want to have a baby?

Ruffin: No I didn’t.  It wasn’t planned.

Brokaw: But you know how babies are made?

Ruffin: Yeah.

Jamerie’s father, who is 23, is in jail awaiting trial on burglary and embezzlement charges.

His absence forces Alicia’s mother Ruth to do a lot of the work in caring for Jamerie.

The rate of teenage pregnancy has been falling for several years nationwide—down almost 50-percent among blacks.  But it still seems very common here.

Lanier counselor Nancy Sylvester has worked in the Jackson public schools for 28 years.

Nancy Sylvester: When I first came to Lanier—I was just really shocked at the number of girls that were pregnant. Some of them have two or three babies.

Brokaw: And is there enough urgency about dealing with it?

Sylvester: I feel that there’s plenty that’s done in the community.  But somehow we’re just not being effective with what’s being presented. It’s not influencing the children to the point that they’re deciding, “This is not what I’m going to do.  I want to do better.  I don’t wanna be a part of this.”

Brokaw: There are terrible consequences for all that.  Because other communities are gonna say, “If they can’t solve that, why should I help?”

Sylvester: Right.

Brokaw: Is this hard for you to talk about this?

Sylvester: It is.  

Brokaw: Why are so many young girls having babies at such early ages?

Chanel Williams: Because a lot of that comes from peer pressure.  “Oh, she’s still a virgin.”  Oh what’s wrong with her?

Amanda Furge: I think a lot of it comes from, “She had a baby.  If I have one, I won’t be that embarrassed.”  And, you’ll have a baby, and then you won’t be that embarrassed.  It’s a cycle.

Nancy Sylvester keeps close tabs on all the teenage moms, giving them makeup work to do and trying to keep them on track for graduation.

Brokaw: This is all very hard work, isn’t it?

Sylvester: It’s very hard.  I work day and night.  It doesn’t end.

Alicia has been diligent about her school work and says she still plans to graduate and go to college.

Ruffin: I want to be so many things just can’t make up my mind.

The next few months will test Alicia’s optimism to the limit.  And for Manuel, it will be a year of tough choices about just what kind of life he wants to make for himself.