Mary Alice Beasley

Behind the Masks Mary Alice Beasley

In these hybrid tales, a fusion of facts and fiction, everyone has a hidden story. Part 1 chronicles the journey of nine first year teachers (Baby Boomers) from their initial hiring during the tumultuous onset of school busing and integration in 1970 to their retirement four decades later. Behaviors, attitudes, and social interactions observed during their careers are emphasized. Their personal stories demonstrate how lingering intrapersonal conflicts affect day-to-day relations. People are complex, and many factors influence conduct. Depending on the wants, needs, desires, motives, checked but unclaimed emotional baggage, they can be masters of deception. Like actors in plays, most wear masks and perform according to well-rehearsed scripts. To discern the content of a person's character, one must look behind the masks. In part 2, using the setting and timeline of the teachers' journey in part 1, a retired educator summarizes decade by decade the social, political, educational, and economic changes in the community to prepare her granddaughters (Millennials) for the challenges they will face in the era of Black Lives Matter. She concludes by reemphasizing the unfortunate but necessary talk African American parents give their teenagers about the perils of life as they embark upon meandering journeys in pursuit of their dreams.