I remember in the first grade the teacher said, ‘Everybody put your heads down on your desk, and close your eyes.’ She came around and put a slip on the white kids' desks telling them when the Home and School Circle was going to meet. Our parents weren’t allowed to be a part of the Home and School Circle, which became the PTA. We couldn’t belong to any of the organizations. Even if you had the best grades in the French class, you couldn’t belong to the French Club.—Arthur Miller

What was it like to grow up African-American in small-town America before the Civil Rights Movement? First person interviews capture home, school, and community life in Oxford, a small college town nestled in the hills of southwestern Ohio.