Joint performance gives white, black students a lesson in race relations - Houston Chronicle: Earlier this summer, as violence in a St. Louis suburb triggered memories of the nation's past racial tensions, students at two Houston area high schools were getting a different sort of education in the historical themes of bigotry and discrimination.
The students from predominantly white Memorial High School and mostly black Carver High School started rehearsals for a joint production of "Memphis," a musical set in segregated Tennessee in the 1950s. The story features backlash to an interracial romance, a drama performed by modern-day teens who say they are all but color-blind. They were in elementary or middle school when Barack Obama became the country's first black president.
"It's just hard to contemplate not having any justice," said Clayton Wells, 16, a Memorial student in the cast.
The idea for the schools to team up began with discussions between Nicole Morgan, the theater director at Memorial High in Spring Branch ISD, and Roshunda Jones, her counterpart at Aldine ISD's Carver High. The two have been acquainted for years; they've attended the same festivals and swapped stories about training teens for the stage.
