William Lynn Weaver (WLW)
WLW: As soon as we got into the school, the principal was calling the roll. He said, ’Bill Weaver,’ and I said, ’My name is William.’ And he said, ’Oh, you’re a smart n-word.’ I’d been in school maybe thirty minutes and he suspended me.
I don’t remember a day that a teacher did not tell me that I didn’t belong. We’d have a test and they’d stand over me and then just snatch the paper out from under and say, ’Time’s up.’
The first report card I got all Fs, including Phys Ed. So I’ve gone from being a good student to starting to think, ’Well, maybe I don’t belong. Maybe I am dumb.’
I was home one evening wondering what I’m going to do when there’s a knock on the door, and it’s my seventh grade science teacher from the black school, Mr. Hill. He said, ’You know, I understand that you’re having some trouble.’ And I said, ’Yeah, Mr. Hill. I think they’re trying to run me away.’ And he said, ’What I need you to do is to come back to the junior high school after school, every day and Saturday mornings.’ He said, ’Can you do that?’ I said, ’Yes Sir.’
And so every day waiting for me would be Mr. Hill with assorted other teachers — the English teacher, the math teacher — and they tutored me. And once I got past those Fs [laughs], I stopped doubting myself. But learning became almost a spiteful activity to prove the teachers at the high school wrong. And no matter what I did academically or athletically, I was never recognized at that school.
I never had a conversation with a counselor about going to college, but during my senior year, I got a letter saying, ’You’ve been awarded a scholarship.’ So I end up going to Howard University.
And 37 years after I left high school, I’m at my older brother’s funeral, talking to Mr. Hill. And I said, ’You know, Mr. Hill, if I had not gotten that scholarship, I don’t know what would have happened.’ And I don’t know how I got the scholarship because I never even applied for it. And he said, ’I know, because I filled in the application and sent it off for you.’
So Mr. Hill stepped in and, I believe, saved my life. And, at the time, I didn’t realize how much I was being helped. And that’s the ignorance of youth and the wisdom of age when you look back on it you say, ’How did I get here? How did I make it?’ Because people helped you, whether you knew it or not.
