Few of us students today could imagine that our school, Seminole, was once segregated.

Before 1965, not a single African-American student had attended Seminole or its feeder, Sanford Junior High (now Sanford Middle).

All this changed in 1964, when a brave little girl, Ingrid Burton (now Ingrid Nathan), came escorted by police and administrators to her first day at Sanford Junior High—which then went through the ninth grade—as the first black student to attend.  Through her dedication and grit as she weathered loneliness and discrimination Burton was able to create a legacy for herself and an opportunity for others.

The time of integration were fraught with troubles as well.  Mr. Ricardo Gilmore, another of the first students, attests personally to the difficulties he had and the ways he surmounted them.  Incredibly, he was able to overcome the difficulties others had placed before him and was elected senior class president.

Not all was easy for these integrators, and Gilmore and Nathan both attest to some of the negative effects the integration has had on black culture and community.  Seminole’s own Ms. Lynn Cullum, who works as the Educational Technology Facilitator, spoke in detail about the first years that the all-black Crooms was closed and all its students were sent to Seminole.  As a student during that period, she experienced first-hand the difficulties involved with integrating these students—many of whom didn’t want to leave their Crooms heritage behind—into an already-full school full of other less-than-welcome students.

In honor of Black History Month, we collected these interviews and stories about the very different Sanford and its flagship school.  The struggle and effort these individuals put into changing their communities stands as a testament to their strength and the dedication they held for their work.

Gilmore, along with many of the others who first integrated beside him, “were able to finish school or finish college and be pretty successful.”  He now works as a senior partner in a law firm he co-founded in Tampa, and others in his class have gone on to become physicians.  Nathan still lives in the county, and teaches Spanish and ESOL at Lake Mary High.  Her husband, Ron Nathan, was once principal of Goldsboro Elementary, and now is principal at Bentley Elementary.

If you would like to add your own voice to the conversation, please comment below.

To read Ms. Ingrid Nathan’s interview, click here.

To read Mr. Ricardo Gilmore’s interview, click here.

To read Ms. Lynn Cullum’s interview, click here.