When I entered Robert Moton, in 1936, I was in the second grade. Just to be in a school where I could be there all day long, it made me feel good to know that I would be learning more. That I wouldn’t have just the two hours to attend school.
Before I started, there were two white schools, an elementary and a high school. But I only had two hours of schooling, at the Catholic School. That was in the afternoon, because we could not attend schools with the white children. So we had to go two hours after school, after school was out [for the day]. After that, I came to Robert Moton. We traveled 12 miles going and 12 miles coming.
When I entered Robert Moton, in 1936, I was in the second grade. Just to be in a school where I could be there all day long, it made me feel good to know that I would be learning more. That I wouldn’t have just the two hours to attend school. The way we got there [was] my mother found out about this black superviser, Ms. May Prince. I came home one day and saw this black woman sitting on my mothers front porch, and I wanted to know who she was. She came to inquire about black children in Taneytown, and that is how we got to Robert Moton in Westminster.
The only gym exercise at the old Robert Moton was when we had field day. We had track and flag relay and dodge ball. Field day was a great day. Schools from all over Carroll County would come. We would have teams, and play Volleyball with different teams, and I think most of the time Robert Moton came ahead of the other schools. We played Hooksville and some of the other schools. It was a big day, an all day thing.
[My favorite game was] volleyball. I was good at it. I remember being in the fifth or sixth grade. The principal at that time, George Crawford, would come over and get about 6 of us girls from the fifth and sixth grade, because we were so good, to play with the high school girls.
I did all the artwork for the children’s school. I did all the sewing. Every time I turned around, it was “will you do this for me?” If there was something that had to be drawn in the school, even the teachers would have me draw different things for them.
View the video interview for Charlotte Hill Franklin at the Carroll County History Project website, "Carroll County - Through the Eyes of the Black Experience": http://carrollhistory.org/tebe.html
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