Epilogue

Dawnie returned to Prettyman Coburn School in the fall of 1955. In October of that year, the Brooklyn Dodgers won the World Series, beating the New York Yankees. It was a victory for Dodgers fans, and especially for Jackie Robinson, as this was his only championship. The World Series was a personal triumph for Dawnie, who listened to the final game of the series on the radio with her family.

The morning of October 4, 1955, marked the final World Series game. On that day, Dawnie rang the Prettyman Bell louder than ever.

Dawnie remained the only black student at Prettyman Coburn. The school was slow to integrate. Dawnie graduated from Prettyman Coburn in 1960. She was ranked third in her senior high-school class, and was the first black student to graduate from Prettyman in the school’s fifty-year history. In 1963, Prettyman enrolled three more black students, but progress took time.

Dawnie won a scholarship and attended Boston University, one of the nation’s few predominantly white colleges to enroll black students at that time. She went on to receive a scholarship to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where she earned her medical degree in pediatric medicine. Through her education, Dawnie learned the true nature of her brother’s “special way of seeing things.” Goober had what is known today as autism, a neurobiological disorder.

Dr. Dawnie Rae Johnson never married. She devoted her life’s work to the advancement in understanding of neurological disorders in children. She became an active member of the NAACP.

Yolanda graduated from Bethune, also ranking high in her class. She stayed in Hadley, married a local man, and became the choir director at Shepherd’s Way Baptist Church.

Dawnie’s parents moved to Richmond, Virginia, the state capital. They successfully opened and operated a chain of dry-cleaning stores, called, simply, “Loretta’s.”

People from all over brought their clothing for laundering, tailoring, and pressing. When they picked up their items, they returned home with the cleanest, sharpest dresses and slacks in the state of Virginia.

Loretta’s employed people of all races. Those who worked for Loretta’s took the establishment’s promise of excellence seriously. The company’s most committed employee was Goober.

Gertie and Dawnie remained friends. Like Dawnie, Gertie also broke new ground at Prettyman. She was the first Jewish student to graduate.

Gertie became a labor attorney who worked on behalf of underserved Americans seeking fair employment opportunities. Soon after Gertie married in 1975, she had one child, a daughter, whom she named Dawn, after her best friend.

Women and men, who, like Dawnie, integrated their schools in the 1950s and 1960s, are still alive today, sharing their stories of triumph.