WATERLOO - Bernice Richard arrived here 40 years ago in the initial wave of an effort to bring more black teachers into Waterloo Community Schools.

"In the late '60s Waterloo wanted to diversify their teaching staff, and in order to find an African-American teacher they went to black colleges," said Richard.

She and four classmates recruited from Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Ark., began teaching for the district in the fall of 1967. They joined eight black teachers already working in the schools.

By virtue of her race and due to a student integration project she was involved in, Richard was at the forefront of early district efforts to provide an equal education to black and white students. After retiring in 2001, Richard was able to parlay three decades of teaching into a successful write-in bid for a Board of Education seat. She now serves as the board's president.

But back in 1967, Richard was looking for the best-paying job in a community that would also provide opportunities for her husband, who was finishing up a stint in the Navy. Some of what she discovered in Waterloo, though, surprised the 22-year-old fresh college graduate.

"You hear things about 'things are different in the North' if you live in the South," she said. "And to come up north and find that things are not different than they are in the South, it was a little shocking."

Richard, who started her teaching career at Jewett Elementary in Evansdale, stepped into a community grappling with race riots and protests in the schools by black students. The cadre of new educators faced their own difficulties as the Cedar Valley adjusted to changing racial realities.

The other teachers included a married couple and two single women. Richard and the other couple each found houses to rent on Waterloo's northeast side, an area black people had been relegated to living in for decades due to restrictive housing covenants. Appropriate rentals were unavailable for the single women in that part of Waterloo and landlords refused to rent to them where space was available on the west side. Eventually, the pair found an apartment in Cedar Falls.

"Shortly after that, things started changing because it was brought to the attention of the people in Waterloo what was going on in housing discrimination," said Richard. But not before the other teachers in the group left the district.

"The single ladies only stayed one year, and the couple stayed for about three years," said Richard.

That her husband was able to find a job as a supervisor in the foundry at John Deere helped ensure they would stay in the community. With two stable jobs, the couple eventually began looking at building their own home.

"That's basically what African-Americans did, they built their own homes," said Richard, rather than buying in areas they were not welcome.

But when the Richards sought a loan, they ran into discrimination.

"When we got ready to build our house, we had gone to one bank and we both had jobs," she said. "And that bank would not lend us the money."

Because of their youth and inexperience, "we didn't realize we were being discriminated against." Their contractor, Ford Evans, and a black teacher, Russ Lowe, told the couple about Richard Jenkins at People's Mutual Savings and Loan, located on Washington Street in what is now the Bluedorn Science Imaginarium.

"He was an advocate of change and he wanted things to get better, and we had no problems because there was nothing wrong with our credit rating," she said, The couple built the home and raised two sons. Richard still lives there.

Bringing races together

In the wake of a 1968 Waterloo riot, a citizens' committee pointed to de facto racial segregation in housing as a root cause of the violence. The committee cited surveys that found Waterloo was the fifth-most segregated city of its size nationally and that inequalities in employment and schools helped foment the riot.

Not long after that, the district embarked upon an innovative effort to bring black and white students together in a school setting. Richard was invited to be part of the Bridgeway Project at Grant Elementary School, which always had the highest concentration of black students in the district. That number reached 100 percent the year she arrived in Waterloo.

The Grant Bridgeway Project started in the fall of 1970 featuring teams of teachers working with multi-age student groupings. Each teacher on a team specialized in a different subject. Principal Bill Knowlton was allowed to assemble his own staff for the school, attracting an even mix of black and white students who volunteered to attend from across the district. The Bridgeway Project continued at Grant for nearly a decade.

"Our student body was 50/50, and it was a really exciting time to be teaching because we were able to deviate from the standard curriculum," said Richard. "And we had a curriculum coordinator right in our building that helped us plan our courses of study for our students."

She said Grant Bridgeway was among the first district schools to use manipulatives in math - objects that can help students understand concepts and calculate answers to problems. Because of the multi-age groupings, the school followed a three-year cycle in science and social studies. That also provided flexibility for students who were academically ahead of or behind peers the same age.

"You could have a second-grader doing fourth-grade work because you were multi-age," said Richard.

"It was really bridging the gap between the cultures," said Judy Fossell, who taught with Richard and now serves on the Board of Education with her. "It was probably one of the most exciting places in the world to teach."

Fossell praised Richard for her work at the school, saying "she made a difference in many lives."

"Her work with the children was just excellent," said Carole Hickins, another retired colleague. "She just put their needs above everything else.

"She always taught multiculturally," added Hickins. "There was never one culture she would point out over the other. She taught them equally."

"She held us to high expectations, she stayed on us when we didn't do right," said Richard's former student Quentin Hart, associate director of multicultural affairs at Hawkeye Community College and a Waterloo City Council member.

"We always knew that she loved us in our classroom. Her classroom was always fun to go to and even today she still reminds everyone that we were her students."

Richard was one of the few black teachers Stephanie Mohorne had and was a "very important" role model for her. Mohorne, who is black, became a district teacher and was named principal of Lowell Elementary School last fall.

"She had firm rules in her classroom that you knew you had to abide, but she was also one of the most caring teachers I ever had in my whole school experience," said Mohorne. "She just treated us all like we were her kids. We knew as children that she was invested in us, in our emotional well-being as well as our education."

Grant was torn down after Richard retired. Dr. Walter Cunningham School for Excellence replaced it on the same site.

Running for school board in 2003 "was nothing that I had planned to do," said Richard. "I felt that (Director) District 4 should be represented by someone who knew the district and would represent the interests of all the people. And so I ran as a write-in candidate."

No one had filed for the seat, but she defeated one other write-in candidate.

"She's a very charismatic person, and parents and staff and administrators - she got along with all of them," said Hickins. "They highly respected her and that's why I think it's carried over to the school board."

She added, "I was fortunate to have worked with her."

Contact Andrew Wind

at (319) 291-1507

or andrew.wind@wcfcourier.com.