Boy Learns Harsh Lesson On Racism

By all accounts, Ben Sharpe is a great student. When his final marks for the eighth grade at Capital Christian Center School in Sacramento, Calif., were sent by fax to this office, a New York Times staffer exclaimed: “Wow! Look at this report card!”

Nothing but A’s. One teacher had noted on the report card: “Student work excellent. Exceptional pleasure in class.” Ben’s final grade-point average was 4.0, the highest possible at his school.

He won the superintendent’s award as the “most outstanding” eighth-grade student and was chosen class valedictorian.

On Monday, June 5, the day before graduation, Ben, 13, and one of only a small number of African-American youngsters at the predominantly white school, was taken aside by the principal and told he would not be allowed to deliver his graduation speech.

Later, his family was informed that he would be barred from the graduation ceremonies altogether. He would not, school officials said, be welcome.

The ostensible reason: His hair was too short.

The real reason: His skin was too black.

The Capital Christian Center, which runs the school, is a large Assemblies of God congregation.

“It’s very conservative, very right-wing,” said Ben’s mother, Faye Sharpe. “The reason we moved the kids out of public school was because we wanted a very strong base in reading, writing and arithmetic. This school has that.”

The Sharpe family is as all-American as you can get - unless you confine the term “All-American” to whites.

Ben’s father, Frank, is a pilot for United Airlines. Faye Sharpe is a pharmacist who has put her career on hold to be home with their two children, Ben and Frank II, who is 11. The family is Christian and very religious.

When Ben was barred from his graduation exercises, the family was staggered. “There is nothing the school could have done that would have hurt Ben or this family more,” Faye Sharpe said.

The school claimed that Ben’s haircut, which was very short (and very common among African-American boys) violated a dress code that prohibits shaved heads.

It should be stressed, however, that Ben’s head was not shaved. He had gone to the barbershop the Saturday before graduation because he was proud of the fact that he would be speaking at the ceremony and he wanted to look his best.

“I wanted to give the school the benefit of the doubt,” Faye Sharpe said, “but my husband never once thought it was the haircut. The haircut was just an excuse, and he was able to see through that. There is nothing that Ben could have done that would have been good enough.”

The parents pleaded with school officials to relent. They would not. So, while his classmates were graduating at the 7 p.m. ceremony, Ben was playing in a senior-league baseball game.

“That night, about 9:30 or so, friends started to call,” Faye Sharpe said. “They said, ‘Faye, they didn’t even call his name at the graduation.’ There was no acknowledgment at all that the boy existed.”

This is not a story with a sad ending.

A reporter named Fahizah Alim wrote about Ben in The Sacramento Bee. The response was overwhelming.

Local television and radio stations picked up the story. Readers, viewers and listeners were outraged. People began phoning and writing messages of support to the Sharpes. Many sent gifts for Ben.

When officials at a local public school heard what had happened, they invited Ben to speak at their graduation. He would be welcome there, the vice principal said.

“Quite frankly, I was moved to tears,” Faye Sharpe said.

Last week, under extreme pressure, the pastor of Capital Christian Center apologized. The Rev. Glen Cole acknowledged that “perhaps” Ben’s punishment “was a little harsh under the circumstances.”

Neither of the Sharpe boys will be back at the school next year. Ben already had been accepted at a Jesuit high school. Now, his brother will be enrolled in a different school, too.

Faye Sharpe insisted, however, that while her family felt betrayed, no one was bitter.

“Not to forgive them would be inviting a cancer inside of me that I just refuse to allow to grow,” she said. “So I know I need to move on.”