The Early Origins of the Institute

The Boothby Institute is named for Al and Alice Boothby. It is difficult to say how my life might have turned out without their influence. Albert C. Boothby was an extremely quiet man. He taught history in a small independent school, nestled in the rolling hills of central New York State. During the late 50’s and early sixties, he realized that education was the most important issue in the process of leveling the segregated playing field of public education in the United States.

There were two school systems, one white and one black. One which provided opportunities at an unprecedented rate and another that fostered a recurring cycle of mediocrity and challenge. During the summers of the early sixties, Al began teaching in African American colleges and universities. He was introduced to Wilhelmina Crosson, the Headmistress of Palmer Memorial Institute, an all African-American independent school by Watts Hill, Jr., Commissioner of Education and another of his history students. North Carolina lead the way in the integration of public schools in large measure because of Governor Terry Sanford and Watts Hill, Jr.

In my senior year of high school, Mr. Boothby made it possible for me to spend six weeks at Palmer Memorial Institute as an exchange student. I learned that students there were starving for answers and creativity. When they discovered that I was an advanced math student, my time became about what I knew and how they could know it. I traveled with the basketball team to all African-American high schools throughout the state. We watched from a clothing store across the street as Woolworth’s was desegregated. Mr. Boothby had warned us extensively not to participate in demonstrations, for it might get in the way of plans for the school.

When I returned to New York, we wrote a grant to the Ford Foundation that became the Palmer Summer Program, a year later, one of the pilots for Upward Bound. The fact that that program was based on creating inspired environments, where ownership and responsibility were a given, was directly the result of the Boothbys’ work at Palmer. It was clear that the capacity for learning was present in every youngster; the question was opportunity and choice. At the outset of planning for Upward Bound, some of the Federal researchers who visited wanted to create it as a remedial program. Mr. Boothby and the faculty, among many voices, helped to create the idea of creating inspired environments where students knew they were valued and cared for in every regard.

There were plenty of rough moments. The first day of our faculty meetings, a fire broke out in Recreation Hall. Eight miles away, the fire department arrived in forty-five minutes. Windows were shot out of dormitories and Alice Boothby taught all of us about courage. Mrs. B. was studying for a Masters Degree in Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and drove there three or four days a week. It was not uncommon for her to be followed by cars that got close, gestured and shouted, but never touched her car until one day when she was run off the road by two cars. An impromptu faculty meeting was called because this incident escalated the tension affecting all of our students and those of us who drove. While the Klu Klux Klan was suspected, we could not know for sure and no one was about to investigate. The courthouse in Greensboro had two drinking fountains at that time; it was highly unlikely that anyone would consider this incident significant.

It was clear that Mrs. Boothby was shaken by this more serious incident and she vowed not to stop making her trips. I made some comment about “hating bigots” and Al Boothby wheeled around to me and said, “That would make you the problem. Until we can come to love the person and hate the action, this will never end.” In that instant, he taught me that loving-kindness had to be the foundation of any solution. Al and Alice Boothby were and are my first and most powerful mentors.

Is it clear to that this organization is named for people of courage and vision, like Erin Gruwell and Jamie Escalante who understood that loving-kindness, creativity and inspired teaching were the most important ingredients in the transformation of anything?