Word: platts
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...chalk line down the school sidewalk for all the pupils to see. One side was labeled "White People," the other "Nigger Lovers." Reason for the line: 65 of the pupils had just signed a special petition to TIME about the plight of the five children of Orange Picker Allan Platt (TIME, Dec. 13). Though the Platts had insisted that they are of Irish-Indian descent-and had documents to prove it-Mt. Dora's Sheriff Willis McCall arbitrarily decided that they are Negroes, and ordered them out of the school. TIME'S story had said that, except...
...care . . . The Constitution says that a person is innocent until proved guilty. We feel that the Platt children have had a raw deal. Their right to an education has been taken away because of the opinions and prejudice...
...Therefore, we believe the Platt children should be permitted to remain in school until the sheriff can prove they don't belong...
...incident of the chalk line, one child was stoned with pebbles. Two more decided next day that they had better withdraw from the petition "because it might hurt our daddy's business." And the Platt children? At week's end-despite their schoolmates' gallant try-they were still barred from school...
Sometime later he returned, accompanied by Principal Roseborough. The principal tried to be polite, but the sheriff was in no mood for the amenities. He pointed to Denzell Platt, 17, and declared: "His features are Negro." Then he pointed to Laura Belle, 13, and said: "I don't like the shape of that one's nose." After this lesson in anthropology, Principal Roseborough surrendered. The Platts, he said, would have to stay out of school "until the sheriff is satisfied...