Title

Oral History Interview: Derryle Peace (1)

Creator

Converging Literacies Center (CLiC)

Subject

counseling studies, fraternity membership, African American fraternity, Girls Inc, civil rights movement, Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, reading, dictionary skill, financing for college, African American family, TV program, quiz show, game show, Dallas area newspapers, newspaper delivery, home delivery milk,  record store, bookmobile, Mad magazine, library, English courses, writing, poetry, marriage, dating, South Dallas area, Jamboree ticket, boy scout,  fraternity, sorority, dormitory, fraternity house, Black football players, homecoming queen, Dean Truax, Erin Murphy, Robert Gold, Bob Gold, Judy Geer, graduate program, vocational counseling, social works, Texas Youth Commission, facilitating group, children victim, young offender, Halfway house, substitute teacher, Girls Club of Dallas, Girls Club of America, AT&T employment, customer service, Black Power movement, African American history, NAACP, National Association of the Advancement of Colored People, AASET, African American Students of East Texas, community service project, African American staff and faculty      

Description

Derryle Peace, an East Texas State University (ETSU) African American alumni and current Director of Alumni Relations Texas A&M-Commerce, talks about the hardship of being African American at ETSU during the 1970s, the struggle of the African American fraternity on campus, and life of African Americans in the Dallas area community. His main fields of studies were counseling and sociology. Influential figures in his life were his grandmother and uncle, Martin Luther King, and Dr. Robert Gold who was his major advisor on academic and student activities.  He has also held positions with the Texas Youth Commission, Girls Inc., and AT&T. Other topics include TV programs, newspapers, family, and work.

Title

Oral History Interview: Derryle Peace Interview (2)

Creator

Converging Literacies Center (CLiC)

Subject

African American Community, Dallas, Northpark, Love Field Airport, Coca Cola plant, family, community church, Sunday school, shop, store, school segregation, school integration, elementary school, junior high school, student preparation, African American school, East Texas State University (ETSU), East Texan newspaper, ETSU in 1970s, fraternity hall, racism, Vietnam war, Martin Luther King assassination, Civil Rights Movement, Malcolm X, biography, African American history, slavery, revolutionary music, school desegregation, Black pride, Ivory Moore, Norris community, The Hole,  Mt. Moriah Temple Baptist church, interracial housing, Dr. David Arlington Talbott, Dr. John Mason Brewer, Campus threatening, NAACP, police investigation 

Description

Derryle Peace was born on May 3, 1962 in Dallas, Texas. He was raised by grandparents in Northpark area near Love Field airport and the Coca Cola plant. Church and neighborhood involvements contributed to his upbringing. Relationships in the community were very close. School segregation made him attend Booker T. Washington school which was located in another area. During the middle of the school desegregation phase, teachers prepared students with advanced lessons to be able to compete with the new transition. African American schools had to adopt second hand books and equipped with old facilities. English classes emphasized European literature with less African American literacy. 

In 1970, he left Dallas for East Texas State University (ETSU) in Commerce. In the meantime, the Vietnam War was on but he did not consider it as the option; college education was his choice.  He was more concerned with civil rights and Black awareness. As an ETSU African American student, he engaged in student activities as well as attending the local Mt. Moriah Temple Baptist church. He mentions the reason why the Norris community is called “The Hole” from railroad blocking. Participation in the newly experimental interracial housing at the ETSU campus  enriched his understanding of racial differences and similarities. There were African American faculty and staff with whom he could relate such as Dr. David Arlington Talbott, Dr. John Mason Brewer, Mr. Ivory Moore. Being a Black during that time, he was threatened by racism and misunderstood on several occasions, but society gradually opened.