Dr. Thomas Clyburn
Dr. Thomas Clyburn can still hear the sound of his patent leather loafers on the floor of a Blue Bird bus, stepping out of his seat, walking down the aisle to the front, then down the steps on the first day of school in 11th grade in an unfamiliar setting.
Earlier that day, Clyburn showed up for class at Booker High School where he was an honors student, but was asked to wait outside the main office. He didn’t know why. A bus pulled up. “Are you Thomas Clyburn?” driver Robert Graham asked. “Yes I am,” the teenager replied. “I’m here to take you to school, not here.” The driver and passenger took the route from Myrtle Avenue to North Washington Boulevard to Sarasota High School. Students were everywhere. “Good luck. I’ll come back to pick you up.” The bus driver dropped him off in front of the gothic style building. When he stepped off the bus, the world in front of him froze.
“Everyone was looking at me. My pulse rate in my throat went to the roof.” He had walked to the administrative office. “It was really, really, really quiet. The principal [Gene Pilot] introduced himself. He asked a few questions.” Then a teacher escorted him to homeroom. Some students were silent. Some whispered. “That was my first day. It was a challenge. You would think those days would get better over time, but in many ways they got worse.”
Clyburn, no longer in Booker’s cocoon of nurturing teachers and classmates was left to navigate a place he entered for the first time. Clyburn was chosen for a pilot program to integrate Sarasota County schools in 1963. “I was sitting in homeroom looking out of the window. A kid with a big German shepherd walked toward the building. I heard a loud pop. Six men racing toward me said ‘get in the center. Don’t say anything. Follow us.’ We went to the principal’s office. They locked down the school to look for the student.” Willemina Thomas, a BHS classmate was also selected to participate in the SHS pilot program, but their paths never crossed. Clyburn’s specialty is behavioral psychology. He was university director of learner affairs at Capella University.
Oral Interview: Dr. Thomas Clyburn
