By Alan Lytle
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wuky/local-wuky-977171.mp3
Lexington, KY – 80 year old Juanita Preuitt grew up in the small hamlet of Arden, Arkansas; population 250. 45 year old Sean Wright has always called Lexington his home, and is the manager of the Lexington Senior Center where Juanita likes to spend her time. Sean is black, Juanita is white, and on the surface one might believe they have little in common, but as their StoryCorps conversation illustrates, the love of sports loomed large in their respective childhoods.
Juanita tells Sean that there is no doubt in her mind that basketball "saved her life". Juanita's parents divorced when she was just 13 and basketball gave her an outlet for her pain. She reminisces about what playing basketball was like some 65 years ago; even bouncing and shooting the ball on an open court in the dead of winter. "We loved it", she said.
Sean says sports helped him through a difficult childhood as well. Both of his parents died of cancer when he was quite young and Wright gives credit to his aunt and others in the neighborhood for raising him. Wright tells Juanita "football was my life and my saving grace". He remembers playing football on a nearby Catholic School field and pretending that he was a big star making the big play. He tells Juanita he did not know they shared a love of sports until the day she brought her yearbook to the Senior Center.
Juanita says seeing those pictures of her days in Arden got her to thinking about how much has changed in America since that time.
Wright asks Preuitt, given the fact that Arden, Arkansas boasted such a relatively small population, did she have any contact with black people? Juanita describes a friend of the family named Agnes Bissell who was always around to help her get ready for school.
She then explains how in the Jim Crow 1950's, it definitely wasn't the custom for blacks to enter white people's houses via the front door but through persistence and insistence, Juanita eventually convinced Agnes that it would be OK if she did: " she told me no, I'm supposed to come in the back door, I said no, Agnes, you are good enough, now you come in this front door. And I just kept on and on and finally succeeded." Preuitt says she and Agnes remained very close friends and they would get together every time Juanita managed to make it back to Arden.
Sean praises Juanita for having the courage to do something that at that time was taboo in southern white society. " for Agnes and many blacks, I want to personally thank you for what you did. You didn't have to do it you could have followed suit, but you didn't."
Juanita and Sean's StoryCorps conversation will be archived in the Library of Congress. Listen for more Conversations from the Lexington StoryCorps booth Tuesdays at 8:35 a.m. and 5:45 p.m.