Elsie Ripley Clapp (1879-1965): Her Life and the Community School Book

Dignity, courtesy and education...
That is what newbie teacher Ricky Braithwaite offered his unruly class of teenagers.

E.R. Braithwaite is in fact the author of this autobiographical 'novel'. This story is based on his personal experiences. He was born in British Guiana (present-day Guyana) to Oxford-educated parents. He had studied in New York and was a qualified engineer who expected upon demobilisation in 1945 from the R.A.F., in which he served as a pilot, to be able to find a suitable position. He soon discovered that he would not be given any of the positions available. The reason? He was black. He was either told that he would not fit in, that he was too well educated and sounded too posh (and he had the temerity to wear a better suit than one interviewer!), or quite simply that the position had been filled. Eventually he had to settle for the only job he could find, teaching a bunch of potential ne'er-do-wells at a school in the East End of London.

In this work Mr Braithwaite mentions that in a sense it was better to be a black person in America as there at least racism was overt. He was shocked, and felt betrayed having voluntarily served in the R.A.F. during WWII, to find that the English whom he had thought to be non-racist were in fact to a considerable extent covertly (and sometimes not so covertly) racist.

After a few hits and misses he soon established a good relationship with the unruly white fifteen-year-olds that he had to teach. He soon understood how little they knew and understood, and set himself the task to not only improve their manners (and personal hygiene), but to teach them practical things that they could apply to their daily lives once they left school. One man cannot wipe out long existing prejudices, but at least forty-odd pupils learned to respect this dignified man, and some of them perhaps went on to better things (I'd like to think so). One man made a difference. In a spare 185 pages Mr Braithwaite packs a huge punch.

Many people of my generation will remember Sidney Poitier's wonderful portrayal of Mr Braithwaite in the 1967 film of the same name. Popular singer Lulu also appeared in the film, and the theme track of the soundtrack is sung by her.

E.R. Braithwaite was soon to complete a Master's degree in Physics at Cambridge University.

His date of birth is given respectively as 1922 (About the Author), 1920 (Introduction) in this book, and as 1912 in Wikipedia, so take your pick... E.R. Braithwaite passed away in 2016.

Mr Braithwaite, I'm sad to say that racism continues as much as ever. One need only switch on the television to see, from one's own living room, innocent people being murdered in the street simply because of their colour.

To Sir, with love, from this reader.