"We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t really matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!”

— Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s final speech before his assassination, April 1968

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In the fall of 1965, over half of all network television made the switch to broadcasting in color. Ergie Smith Jr., born in Switchback, W.Va., was witness to another transition — one toward black and white.

If things are, as they say, slower in the South, then integration was no exception. The 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision declaring separate public schools for white and black children unconstitutional, finally incited change in McDowell County schools 11 years later; in some West Virginia counties, like Mercer, which desegregated in 1969, change trickled even slower.

Smith had been a teacher and a coach at Gary District School, an all black institution, before the consolidation into Gary High School happened. With two West Virginia Class A championships under his belt, one in football and one in basketball, he felt certain he’d have a position in the newly consolidated school, coaching black students and white students alike to be their athletic and academic best. He was wrong.

“Segregation became a part of my life when I was born,” Smith states. “But integration started in 1965. It was good that integration came.”

Before a professional career in academics spanning decades, Smith, who is the only umpire, African-American or other, to have officiated at the Little League World Series (1982), the Big League World Series (1985 and 1987) and the American Legion World Series (1983), was a conscientious student at segregated Kimball High School.

His teachers were vitally concerned about the overall success of their pupils. He remembers being outside the classroom when Ms. Polk, one of his teachers, corrected him for using “went” when he should’ve used “gone,” even though class wasn’t in session at the time.

“They’d tell you, ‘You gotta straighten up’ if you weren’t doing things correctly. Teachers saw you as a whole person. I think we got a great education in the all black schools, but we had inferior facilities,” he remembers.

There were no basketball courts, he explains, no football fields to practice on, even for champions. His boys had to wait until the white school teams were finished practicing to borrow theirs.

When his impeccable coaching resume was passed over in 1965 for what he is almost certain were racial motives, Smith declined to continue at Gary High. He resigned and worked for a community action agency, Council of Southern Mountain, for seven years before re-entering the school system at Mount View High School in 1978.

The Bluefield State College alum and All-American running back would go on to hold various teaching and leadership roles in state secondary education, including dean of students, McDowell County Board of Education and vice principal posts.

Smith says people he lived and worked around could feel a change in the air and a stirring within from the speeches delivered by the young Baptist minister, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

 It was March 1968 when King traveled to Memphis, Tenn., in support of striking African-American sanitation workers, who were paid significantly lower wages than whites for the same duties. He would gather April 3 to deliver his final speech, later known as “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.”

The next day, as King stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis where he stayed between events, he was shot and killed.

Now, just before what would have marked Dr. King’s 83rd birthday, Smith speaks about the importance of the man’s timeless, race-less message.

“Dr. King’s work made the greatest social change in the history of the United States. As a result of his work, it left us with an opportunity and an obligation and responsibility — to try and carry on his legacy and ensure every generation after had the power of equality for all.”

While King was rising in popularity and recognition in the 1960s, Smith was impressed most by the manner in which the activist promoted his message.

“He tried to handle people with respect and love rather than violence. He made people feel like all colors could work towards equality. While it’s not perfect yet, I’m looking forward to each generation getting better and better.”

If Smith could impart anything more to younger generations than he has over his lengthy career, it would be to always know where you’re going, but never forget those who went before to clear the path.

“I’d like for them, since they are so good with technology, to do research to understand what their parents went through to have the opportunities they have now. To understand the physical harm and even death Dr. King and his followers went through. Don’t take for granted the opportunities available to you now.”

Smith has lived to see King’s impact again and again in the lives of his own children and grandchildren, afforded those opportunities he would never have and some he could never have dreamed.

His granddaughter, Brandyn Street, is a PhD level clinical psychologist in Palo Alto, Calif. She obtained her undergraduate degree from Wake Forest University and her graduate degree from Vanderbilt.

Grandson Chance Smith is a member of the Radford University Highlanders basketball team. He is a senior majoring in business administration and seeking a masters degree. These are just a few of the blessings Smith has received over his lifetime.

While optimistic by nature, as a young man Smith says he didn’t have the kind of vision it would take to see that the path cleared by Dr. King would also lead an African-American to the nation’s highest office.

“I have seen the progress made since 1965. There’s a lot left to be done, though. I am very encouraged by people who have bought into legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King. One of the things that has been lost is the generations after us have failed to recognize they have opportunities availed to them that would not have been if it weren’t for King and his followers.”

A lifestyle of athletics has shaved a good 20 years off octogenarian Smith’s appearance. His beloved wife of 50 years, Helen, a Mount Hope native, passed away in 2000. Smith retired from umpiring baseball seven years ago and from refereeing football just this past year.

Now a Princeton resident, he enjoys traveling to the Caribbean. Each year, he also looks forward to attending the summer reunion of the West Virginia All Black Schools Sports and Academic Hall of Fame, when supporters gather in Charleston to celebrate the defining achievements of educators and students who hailed from and served at West Virginia’s segregated schools.

He credits WVABSSA president and founder Helen Jackson-Gillison, a Weirton attorney, with preserving the history of the people and accomplishments contained within the walls of those schools.

“All that history would go down the drain if she wasn’t preserving it for future generations. It’d be lost forever.”

We’ve come a long way since 1965, says Smith, but there are still difficult days ahead. Holding both quality education and equality as firm ideals, Smith is disappointed to see what he defines as a sore lack of African-American representation within West Virginia’s education system.

“There are very few black principals and coaches at the level of secondary education,” he gathers from his own observation.

He also questions a deficit of African-American representation on the boards of education at the county and state levels collectively, entities he views as the education decision-makers.

“I don’t like to live in the past. I want to move ahead, but there is a time to make people aware of what has transpired in history and to make a better future for everyone of all races.

“(The decision to integrate) took care of the idea that students were going to be placed in one school. Whether there would be equal opportunities, that had to come from the hearts, minds and souls of people,” he states.

— E-mail: lshrewsberry@register-herald.com