Evolution Of An Integrationist: My Navigation Through Race Relations & Maturation 1964-1968

In 1964, Keith Neyland became the first Black student to register at Florida State University High School. At that time, there was a fierce on-going battle between the Blacks who were seeking to attain their civil rights, and the Whites who vigorously exercised acts of violence to deny those rights. It was during these turbulent times that two skinny ninth-graders, Keith Neyland and Mahlon Rhaney, (who formally had attended the historically all-Black elementary and junior high school under the direction of Florida A&M University), were admitted and started to attend the historically all-White Florida State University High School (FHS) in Tallahassee, Florida. During their first two years, they were confronted almost on a day-to-day basis with relentless name-calling and other acts of degradation and derision. Notably, however, their racially motivated treatment at home paled in comparison with the mistreatment they received as participants in sporting events in the small towns within a seventy-five mile radius of Tallahassee. Thus, Keith, as the first Black to play varsity football and basketball in Tallahassee and the surrounding area was subjected to intense racial animus at games in away venues. As the first Black students at FHS, Keith and Mahlon were under intense scrutiny by white students who had never had Black classmates. They felt the pressure to dispel historically held stereotypes. All the racial problems with which they were confronted with had to be resolved in the context of their general transition from junior high to high school and the challenges associated with their maturation into young men.