A RELUCTANT REVOLUTIONARY

Dr. Betty Holston Smith

In June of 1956, Betty Holston’s father told her she was not going back to Carver, the “colored” high school in Rockville. Instead she would attend B-CC, the local high school a mile from her house. At first, Betty hated the idea. By the end of that first year, no one (and we mean no one) was going to convince her she did not belong.

By Bennett Galper, Gabe Gebrekristose and Katherine Jones

For many high school students, the first day of school is filled with hugs and joyful chatter as they gather in the hallways, reconnecting with friends and teachers. For Betty Holston, the first day of school was filled with hushed silence and stares from white students.

She was not the only African-American student to enroll in Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in 1956; there was Nancy Browne who lived on River Road in Potomac. But unlike Nancy, Betty lived on Hawkins Lane, an unpaved road that led to a small number of wooden homes which were occupied by black families who held service jobs for wealthy white families in the area.

“We were segregated racially, of course, ” Dr. Betty explained, “but we were also isolated from other black communities.”

In short, Betty stood out immediately at B-CC for two reasons: she was defi nitely not white and her family was definitely not well-to-do.

Inhigh school today, you guys have your friends. And, you see them after school. And, you do whatever you do. Go to movies. Whatever. I didn’t have that... I never had that throughout high school.”

Dr. Betty

A Rough First Year

Betty’s first year, 10th grade, can be summed up with a single word - isolation. She was spat on, called racial obscenities, and was physically abused.

After being jumped on the way home on her first day, she never rode the school bus again. She also did not feel comfortable taking the shortcut path through the predominantly-white East Bethesda neighborhood surrounding B-CC.

So each morning, Betty’s mother dropped her off in front of B-CC. Each afternoon, she walked east on EastWest Highway, turned left on Connecticut Avenue, walked to Jones Bridge Road, and eventually made her way to her house on Hawkins Lane. This was her routine, all school year, in all kinds of weather.

After a series of taunts at lunch , she never ate in the cafeteria again, choosing instead to get take-out from the back door of a local diner. She ate her lunch while walking back to B-CC.

“I would go home every day and cry,” recounted Dr. Betty wistfully.

A “Better” 11th Grade

“11th grade was better, meaning I was better,” said Dr. Betty. “But everything else was the same.”

She still lacked friends and the administration demeaned her, advising her to switch from an academic track to a commercial one because her brain “wasn’t developed enough” for college study.

Despite these obstacles, Dr. Betty was determined to push forward. She joined the basketball team and the Biology Club. Her interest in biology stemmed from the hours she and her siblings spent in the then-untouched woods surrounding Walter Reed Hospital.

“We could be free, running, playing and figuring out how to entertain ourselves. Because of segregation, we didn’t have playgrounds.”

Growing Resilient

Even when things were bad, Betty’s determination did not waver.

When her history teacher, for example, referred to her and all African-Americans as less-than-human, Betty knew she needed to do something.

Betty leaned into whatever power she did have.

“I babysat for white families in Chevy Chase, including Maryland State Senator Edward Northrop.”

She wrote, rewrote and rewrote again a letter detailing her history teacher’s treatment of her and left it on Senator Northrop’s home desk.

Within days, she and her parents were called into the principal’s office and given a choice of other teachers. Betty refused to switch classes.

“I wouldn’t do that and run from the problem.”

Instead, she threatened to send her letter to the Washington Post.

Shortly after that, her teacher left the school.

Having grown up in the South, her father was not happy about this new assertive side of Betty. He feared for her safety.

“He grew up with a ‘go-along to getalong’ philosophy. My mother, on the other hand, was smiling.”

A Semi-normal Senior Year

Dr. Betty’s enthusiasm for education started from a young age at home.

“My house was the ‘homework house’ of the neighborhood. Education was the route out of where we were.’’

Biology Club became one of many outlets for Dr. Betty at B-CC, kindling her passion for education and knowledge.

Graduation and Beyond

After graduating from B-CC, Dr. Betty passed the US Civil Service Commission typing test and landed a Grade 2 typing job at the US Department of Labor, Women’s Bureau—she hated it. Seven years after graduating from B-CC, she married. While working fulltime, she enrolled at D.C. Teacher’s College where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Education with valedictorian status. She became a mother,. Her education continued.

She enrolled in Southeastern University where she earned an MBA/MPA combination degree. And finally she enrolled in Nova University’s doctoral program and earned an Ed. D. in Early and Middle Childhood Development and Education. 32 years after graduating from B-CC, she completed her formal education.

During this time of nonstop, parttime education, she landed a support job as a research assistant for the Federal Cardiovascular Data Processing Research Center, housed at D.C.’s Veteran’s Administration Hospital.

The V.A. program was focused on incorporating the use of computer technology to improve cardiovascular medicine.

Over the eight years that she worked there, she learned everything she could about the heart, including how to diagnose electrocardiograph tracings.

Her director encouraged Betty to pursue a medical degree but the closest medical school did not accept black students.

Undeterred, Dr. Betty established and operated the BH Smith Education Consulting Company which trained child development programs throughout the USA and world. She worked with migrant programs, Native-American reservations, Alaskan villages, universities, the Department of Agriculture, the IRS, and the US Army which operates hundreds of child development programs throughout the world

She ran BH Smith for more than 25 years before retiring to help care for her grandsons.

Along the way, she became a long -distance runner, covering over 100,000 miles over 50 years.

Along the way, she wrote two books: Ageless/Ouchless Running in the Second Half of Life and an autobiography titled Lifestyle by Nature.

Along the way, she was awarded a patent for her Chick Pee design which allows female runners to “go on the go.”

She has never stopped learning, tak- ing courses in “every and anything” from auto mechanics, swimming, diving, Tai Chi, Qigong, and Karate.

Decades ago, she became an organic vegan, eating only foods she prepares.

According to her doctors, Betty, an Octogenarian, has the “fitness age” of 40 with a resting heart rate of 28 to 30 beats per minute.

Living Above

According to Dr. Betty, her parents and their focus on education as “the way out” taught her who she was and who she was not.

“I had no power to wipe out discrimination, ” explains Dr. Betty. “So, like the bald eagle whose strength allows it to use the wind to fly above a storm, I used the strength of education to rise above the storm of discrimination.”

Even in 1959, there were those who still refused to embrace the reality of school integration. One of the seniors pictured at left, actually whited Betty’s picture out of his copy of the yearbook. We are not naming names.

Since graduation, Betty has developed close friendships with a number of her B-CC classmates

Now, Afghan girls & women are

Schoolis like the sun that illuminates the great earth,” writes Bushra*, a 16-year old in the Baghlan Province, Afghanistan. “It is the light and also what leads people to the light. In school I was flying and progressing in life. After the school gates closed, the dreams I had for my future disappeared [which made me feel] like a dove without wings and I can’t fly anymore.”

Interviewed by Hadia