Anthony Dozier could have just given up. He had plenty of reasons.
As a teenager in the early 1970s, Dozier was among the first group of black students in Wichita to be bused from Anthony Doziertheir neighborhoods to predominantly white schools in an effort to integrate the public school system. He was sent first to Truesdell Intermediate (now Middle) School, then to Wichita South High School, both of which were, in Dozier’s words, “turbulent, violent” areas of racial unrest. He eventually transferred to Wichita North because, as he put it, “I was not learning. There were too many distractions.”
Then, when Dozier was a sophomore, his parents divorced. Dozier and a younger brother stayed with their father, who after about six months abandoned the boys. Dozier and his brother lived in the house about seven more months, trying to fend for themselves and stay in school. Ultimately, the utilities were shut off for lack of payment and the brothers had to leave.
Although they were fortunate to be taken in by a local family, Dozier continued to struggle. Because he didn’t have a reliable way to get to school, he was tardy so often the administrators at North were on the verge of expelling him. With all the transitions and turbulence in his life, Dozier was also living his experience at South High all over again. He wasn’t learning anything in school.
Yet Anthony Dozier didn’t give up. Through sheer will and effort, he graduated from high school. Since that time, he has married and raised two daughters. He has become active in his church and worked hard at his job. He joined an organization designed to provide positive black male role models to Wichita adolescent and teenage boys. And in the year 2000, he went back to school part-time to work on a degree in business administration.
Story Contributed by Director of Editorial Services Ken Arnold
Read the full article at the Newman University website: https://news.newmanu.edu/newman-university-student-anthony-dozier-relied-on-faith-determination-to-complete-college-degree/
