No Follow-Up to the Protest
The State responded to the protest simply by reiterating facts that were known beforehand. To his credit, Principal Galloway spoke at some length, both thoughtfully and sincerely.
Not to their credit, the student leaders and their spokesman remained anonymous (which was atypical for 1960s protests) and, curiously, quiet. Presumably they had urged their peers to protest in expectation of making a big splash, but looking around afterwards, no one seemed to have got wet. Was something else supposed to have happened, something that fell through at the last minute, thereby turning the protest into a dry run? No one was saying.
I was disappointed at myself: I had answered a call to action without knowing what was supposed to happen afterwards – and nothing did. All we had to show for our efforts was the belief we’d probably been part of the last school-wide recital of the Regents Prayer in New York State public schools.
And we didn’t even get any souvenir T-shirts for our efforts.
Ciao!
