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Google PlayTracey Meares was on track to become her high school’s first Black valedictorian in 1984, but after the school changed the rules, she ended up being declared a “top student,” alongside a white peer.
Now, 38 years later, Meares has deservingly earned her title of valedictorian.
The now-legal scholar at Yale College of Law was presented with the long-overdue honor during a screening for her No Title for Tracey documentary this past week by Springfield High.
“My first reaction is that it’s incredibly gratifying, but it’s also a lot to process,” Meares told The State Journal-Register, adding that she “had a lot of trepidation about coming back here and meeting” her 17-year-old self. “It’s the metaphor of a dry sponge. When you pour a bunch of water on a dry sponge, it takes a while [to soak it up].”
The film, directed by Maria Ansley, follows the events that led up to Meares graduation in ‘84, including when she claims a white assistant principal tried to remove her file from the counselors office, and when the school allegedly began to introduce white student Heather Russell as the top of her class. The school eventually dropped the ball on valedictorians and salutatorians that year, and only resumed them in 1992.
“We want every student to have a feeling of belonging in all aspects of school and a sense of becoming as they leave our schools with a plan for college and career,” current superintendent Jennifer Gill said in a statement to People. “It is our responsibility to ensure that our system supports students in reaching their full potential. We have seen that high school experiences can have a profound, lifelong impact. It was an honor to have Tracey here and a privilege to learn from such an accomplished alumna.”
As her father Robert Blackwell explained decades later, Meares “flipped” the situation and “kept learning, kept achieving, and we didn’t spend time commiserating about the situation.”
