Antoinette Chatmon's family's quest for economic security brought them to Tulare in the early 1920s. As a result, Chatmon, 95, became the first African-American to attend school in Tulare.
"That's what they say, that I was first," Chatmon said. "But I heard there may be one person before me, a man. I went to Central School. They call it Tulare Union now. I was the only black there and it was just hard. They called me 'black cloud' in grammar school. I didn't like it."
Some memories don't come easily after more than nine decades of accumulating them. Time and pain have conveniently repressed other unwanted recollections. Chatmon's failing hearing often causes visitors to have to repeat what they've said.
She chuckles and says she just might like not being able to hear everything everybody says. It's peaceful that way, she says.
Chatmon's parents moved from New Orleans to California. They spent time in Fresno and Lindsay before settling in Tulare. Henry and Corinne Douglas, her stepfather and mother, came to Tulare from Lindsay in 1920, according to the Advance-Register archives. She attended Tulare Union High School in 1924.
"I had one white friend at school," Chatmon said. "I never did go to her house and she never was [allowed] to my house. [The kids] were prejudice? They made me feel alone and I'd stand off to myself."
Chatmon left school because she couldn't cope with the prejudice and isolation, she said. "I don't like to talk about all this stuff because sometimes I think I could have done better. Maybe if I'd gone and gotten an education. I didn't because I didn't think it would do any good to tell you the truth."
Artie Mae Allen was the first African American graduate of Tulare Union High School, according to local history book "Tulare A to Z."
Written in the Tulare Advance Register 2005
