I am no longer surprised to find purpose in the people I meet. I am being guided to certain people for a reason. When I complimented Michelle on her Afro at the She Wins Conference last year, I had no idea she had such a rich backstory. When I did a video about the real Great Debaters, I didn’t know Michelle had also attended Wiley College!
Here are some fun facts I learned from her essay: “GROWING UP ON THE ‘COLORED’ SIDE OF THE BORDER:
- Meet Michelle Petties, whose grandmother and aunt attended Wiley College, a historically Black college depicted in the 2007 film The Great Debaters, starring Denzel Washington. If you follow me on TikTok, I made a video about the real debaters that you can find under my Must Watch playlist. Michelle also attended Wiley in 1974.
- Michelle was born and raised in Marshall, Texas, on Border Street (now Travis St), which served as a literal line of separation between the Black community situated south of the street and the white one on the north.
- In the fall of 1965, Michelle became one of the first Black students to integrate Sam Houston Elementary School.
- A library worker denied her entrance because she was not a “mammal.” “If that sounds strange to you,” said Michelle, “imagine how it sounded to a young Black girl growing up at a time when segregation was still very much a part of the culture.”
- She used to play with George Foreman as a child.
The PBS Blog 
What a fascinating woman with such a story to tell!
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Yes indeed.
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It’s good to read about all Michelle’s happy memories, in spite of segregation. I can hardly believe that someone would call her ‘not a mammal.’ That must have been devastating for her.
But she has risen above all that to be an inspiration.
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So true. My mouth dropped when I read it, like huh? Not a what? Lol
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