Mary Crossland hugs a former student at a retirement party thrown for her by colleagues in June. Photos courtesy of Dallas ISD
Mary Crossland, a teacher at L.O. Donald Elementary in Oak Cliff, retired last month after 51 years with Dallas ISD.
Forty nine of those 51 years were spent at L.O. Donald, where she was transferred in 1971 as part of the district’s desegregation efforts.
She explains in this interview from DISD’s news website, The Hub:
Right after schools were integrated, I worked for a year and a half at J.N. Ervin Elementary. Dallas ISD sent eight teachers from predominantly-black schools to predominantly-white schools during the 1971-1972 school year, and I was one of two from J.N. Ervin who was chosen to go to L. O. Donald. We were the first Black teachers to work in that school.
There were unpleasant things that did happen, and most of that came primarily from the community and the parents, and sometimes even the faculty, because to some people we weren’t wanted. But that didn’t deter me at all. I am a person who didn’t give up and I was put there for a reason. I truly believe that I was sent there for a purpose and I was not going to be driven out. I knew that I had the ability and that my school Prairie View A&M University had prepared me, and I knew that I could do this and I did do it. I was determined that I was going to stay and I did.
Crossland credits her own high school teachers in New Boston, Texas, for her own academic success and desire to teach others.
“You have to love working with children. It takes a special kind of person to say: ‘Yes, I will stay with you until 5 p.m. if necessary for you to learn how to do what it is that you don’t know how to do well,” she says. “It takes a special person to do those kinds of things. You have to love children and you have to love wanting to help them.”
Read the full interview here.
