Carrie Ann Washington is a former teacher at Southwest Middle school who retired several years ago.

“In total, I have 44 years of teaching here in Searcy,” commented Mrs. Washington.

But what you may not know, is that Mrs. Washington has been teaching in this school district since Searcy schools were segregated. Mrs. Washington began teaching at White County Training School, an all black school.

“I started here in 1958 when Mr. James Ahlf hired me to teach at the all black school and I taught the third grade,” said Washington.

At the beginning of the integration process, Mrs. Washington began teaching at McRae Elementary.

“I taught at McRae Elementary for thirty six years,” said Washington.

In honor of black history month, Southwest Middle School invited Mrs. Washington to speak to the students.

“The importance of enduring unpleasant situations and the importance of concentrating…” Washington addressed the students.

In her speech, Mrs. Washington discussed how she felt about the integration process.

“I did find it challenging because some people did not want to integrate so, I was on my p’s and q’s,” confessed Washington.

Mrs. Washington shared her experience with other teachers during integration: “At first, there was one incident. But later on, it was just fine because we all were there together.”

Washington felt integration of schools at Searcy was much easier than it was in other parts of the state.

“Schools here in Arkansas did not integrate as soon as we did,” remembered Washington. “And I would say we were probably about the first.”

During Mrs. Washington’s teaching career, some students gave her more trouble than others.

“My class, after lunch, were fifth grade boys, and they really wanted to disrupt class, so I just informed them that they were in a remedial reading class and they needed to listen to what I had to say,” said Washington. “Education is the key and reading is most important.”

Even in retirement,  Mrs. Washington still stresses the need for education.