Since 1976, every U.S. president has officially designated the month of February as Black History Month. And to commemorate and celebrate Black History Month, I would like to share with you this personal true story. When my wife Jo Emma and I go to our cottage in Zapata, Texas for our mental and physical health, I always pack some books that I have not read. On our recent trip, I was working on the mental exercises on the following book that my niece Verónica and Arturo gave me for my last birthday, which she so lovingly and affectionately inscribed for me.
Besides the 399 games, puzzles, and trivia challenges, it also has the months of the year dispersed throughout the book with trivia quiz about important historic events in our country and throughout the world by years. So, when I got to page 220, “September In History,” I knew the answer to the trivia quiz for 1957.
The answer was Little Rock, Arkansas, and I knew it not because I was aware of this historic incident when it actually happened in 1957, since I was in the fourth grade at St. Augustine School with Sister Emmanuel, and many homes in the barrio El Azteca in Laredo, including ours, did not have a black and white television set, and on the only radio we had, Mamá listened to her novelas from the Mexican channels. And, we could not afford to subscribe to the Laredo newspaper. I double checked with the answers in the back of the book to see if my recollection was correct and it was. It was not until I attended St. Mary’s University in the late 1960s that I became aware of this historic event.
Two years later, in 1959, and about 1,024 miles from Little Rock, Arkansas, in the town of Norfolk, Virginia, a courageous young man by the name of Louis Cousins attempted to replicate the previous historical event. According to a newspaper article: “This 1959 photo shows Louis Cousins in the Maury High School auditorium in Norfolk. In 1959, Cousins was the only black student at Maury High School.”
When six public schools closed 50 years ago rather than accept black students, 10,000 white students in Norfolk were locked out of classrooms during Virginia’s last, desperate gasp to resist integration.
He spoke about his first day at his new school. “My mother and I walked up those steps and people were calling us names,” he said. “When my mother left me, I was completely alone.”
“I went to the auditorium along with all of the other new students and picked a seat near the front, he said. I was not going to sit in the back anymore because I finally had an opportunity to be in the front.”
In 2016, I had the honor and the pleasure of meeting Louis Cousins. He and his charming wife, Deloris, live one block from my parents house and just a few blocks from ours in the same subdivision. One day when Jo Emma and I were walking towards my parents’ house, he was outside in the front yard and waved at us to come closer which we did. The conversation quickly centered on him knowing my sister Lupe who used to walk by his house almost every day since she lived with my parents. In our conversations, he and I found out that we had a lot in common. We see each other quite often and get together for breakfast to talk about literature. He is also an avid reader, and so we share the latest books we have read. I did not know about his historic background until he told me about it during one of our breakfast get-togethers.
Louis is three years older than I am and during the Vietnam War, he was a medic for the U.S. Army. After the war, he changed careers and went into Clinical Research. In this capacity, he garnered several honors and medals for his exemplary service in the Air Force. And, after 21 years of dedicated service, Louis retired from the Air Force and he and his wife and son settled in San Antonio where he worked at the Methodist Hospital as a Medical Technologist.
Then one day, I took him to visit St. Mary’s University. We had a very enjoyable visit at our alma mater. We went to visit some of his professors in the Science Department. And, for lunch we went to the cafeteria and sat at the faculty table and had a delightful time visiting with our former faculty members. Louis received his B.A. degree in Chemistry in 1990, while he was working full time in the medical field and supporting a family.
Louis Cousins and I at one of our breakfast get-togethers. During this particular get-together, I highly encouraged him to do an interview for the St. Mary’s University Alumni magazine, Gold & Blue. He agreed and I promised him that I would contact Alex Salinas at the university. A few days later, Louis called me to let me know that Alex had contacted him to set up the interview at his house. Accordingly, Alex published the story in the Fall 2016 issue of Gold & Blue. A copy of the story is in the attachments.
Sadly, on Friday afternoon, January 17, 2020, I received a telephone call from Deloris to notify me that her beloved husband had unexpectedly passed away. I was in shock because a few days before, he had called me from the Fort Sam Houston Medical Center, and we were making plans for another breakfast get-together. He was an amazing person and very well read on a variety of topics. I do miss his friendship. May his soul rest in peace.
Photo Captions: A picture of Cousins sitting in the front of the auditorium alone with all of the other students sitting in the back became a popularly used photo to describe the integration period.
Louis Cousins, one of the “Norfolk 17,” waits to be assigned to a home room at Maury High School in the auditorium on Feb. 1, 1959. (The Virginian-Pilot file photo)
Louis Cousins, one of the “Norfolk 17,” waits to be assigned to a home room at Maury High School in the auditorium on Feb. 1, 1959.
