Story and Photo by Jennifer Schaeffer

Sitting apprehensively in the back seat of a police car wearing his usual starched shirt and khakis, an anxious teenager thought to himself, "Will I be able to handle this?"

The car passed several roadblocks before arriving at its destination.

The teenager got out, knowing every detail of this historic day had been carefully planned. But no amount of planning could prepare him and two other black youths for their first day at Gainesville High School.

It was 1964 and the teenager in question was Joel Buchanan. Until then, Gainesville had upheld strict segregation rules, but Joel had been chosen to be the first African-American male to attend GHS. No longer would he have to be bused to another school across town when there was a school just down the street.

Joel had shown interest in his community and in race relations at a young age. When he was in the sixth grade, he joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He had also participated in a protest against College Inn (which later became Purple Porpoise) and their whites-only policy. One of these protests even got Joel arrested.

"Why is there a separate theater for blacks? Why can't I go to that big college in the middle of town?" Joel remembers thinking.

The history liaison for the Smathers library department of special collections, Joel is a particularly exuberant character. Whenever someone starts a conversation with him, he holds them there for hours at a time with his wild gestures and beaming smile. Back then, however, when he started at GHS, he didn't talk to anyone.

"I call it the quiet period," Joel says. "I didn't go out of my house after school, I didn't participate in school activities."

The stress of the integration caused Joel to suffer from daily headaches.

"People stared at us as if we were a different breed of animals," says Joel. "'Oooohs' and 'Ahhhhs' became very prevalent that first day. Kids would shout 'Niggers go home!' in the hallways."

Joel said he decided to become one of the first to integrate the school system "for the betterment of my community and self."

This, however, meant distancing himself from that community. He no longer went to school with his friends from the neighborhood. His black friends from Lincoln High School acted aloof toward him, as if he had chosen the white kids over them. They stopped inviting him to play and didn't stop to talk to him in church.

"I didn't realize things were going to be so different," Joel says. "I had to develop a self worth that was impenetrable— that's why I'm so arrogant," he adds with a chuckle.

Teachers were Joel's only source of communication during most of the school day, though they managed to arrange for the children who integrated to eat lunch together.

Joel later learned that people originally thought he would be substandard and could not learn. He said his teachers didn't expect him to do well in school because they just assumed his race had something to do with his intelligence.

Another hardship he endured was the threat of retribution. He had to wake earlier than the other kids to go to school because his school bus was a police car.

"I feared for my life," Joel admits. "I couldn't just leave home anytime I wanted to."

However, his efforts didn't go unnoticed. There were many who did appreciate Joel's contribution.

"It was heroic for Joel and all of those who were the first to integrate," says childhood friend Connie Ezell.

After high school, Joel decided he wasn't finished yet. He proceeded to knock down the invisible line at the door of the UF. He was one of the first 50 black students to attend the university. In the early '70s he graduated with a degree in English, and has since taught at both UF and Santa Fe Community College.

Joel is somewhat of a celebrity now. The man wearing shiny leather shoes with tassels and a colorful sweater always draws an audience.

Link to the Houston Chronicle to learn about key dates in the desegregation of schools in the United States.

He has used this influence to do good in his community as a chairman for the Inner City Neighborhood, which is a group that helps keep his neighborhood up to standards.

"Joel is a hard-working guy when it comes to his community," says Alachua City Manager Clovis Watson, a long-time friend. "He is well-versed in the history of the whole community. He is outgoing, very friendly and believes in what he does."

Joel says he is working to maintain the historical part of his neighborhood and to remove the negative aspects, like dilapidated homes.

Joel remains a dominant figure in his neighborhood and throughout Gainesville. He is continuing to break down the invisible wall that he says surrounds the black community in Gainesville.

"Gainesville has been good to me, now I'm a good boy to Gainesville," Joel says.

Produced by Kristen Beyke and Jenny Altier