Woman found allies growing up Black in Butler
Beverly Smallwood, of Butler, said growing up in Butler was made easier by the city’s immigrant and Jewish population, who also saw their share of discrimination. Cary Shaffer/Butler Eagle
Beverly Smallwood remembers an incident in sixth grade at Center Township Elementary School in the late 1950s when students were lining up for an activity.
A white student told Smallwood, who is Black, to get behind her because of her skin color, adding in a dreaded derogatory slur.
“I punched her dead in her face,” Smallwood said. “Her head hit the wall, and she slowly slid down.”
The next day, her father, the late Joe Smallwood, informed Beverly he would be driving her to school.
She wondered why, until she and her father had driven a short distance down the road.
“(The white student) and 15 people were at the bus stop, waiting to kick my ass,” Smallwood said.
