'I was a part of a movement': Women reconnect decades after integration movement makes headlines
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Nearly a decade after Brown v. Board of Education, an unlikely duo met on a field trip when they were seven years old. Both have held onto a newspaper clipping that connects them half a century later.
"In that moment, I didn't realize it was history as a second grader," Veronica Baker of Buffalo said. "Now as I look back at it, I say, 'Wow, I was a part of a movement, a change.'"
"Wow, I never really thought about that, but yeah, it is special. It's really special," Kelcey Chandler, originally of Grand Island, but now lives in New Zealand, added.
Baker recalled meeting Kelcey Chandler when they were in the second grade. It was the mid-1960s, in the throes of the Civil Rights Movement and integration in schools nationwide. The duo met at a field trip. Neither of them remembers where the field trip took them, only the impact the other had on their lives in the 21st century.
"It was one of those moments in time to meet somebody who is different than me and not really recognizing what that difference was. The onlookers, the ones that were bringing us together, they knew the difference, but for me, she was just another little girl I could get a chance to play with," Baker said.
Chandler went to Mount St. Joseph Elementary and grew up on Grand Island while Baker went to P.S. 39 on High Street and grew up not too far from there in the Fruit Belt neighborhood of Buffalo. A picture in the Buffalo Evening News has become family folklore in two households across the world.
The pair were seen smiling, showing each other their name tags in the paper. Both of their parents kept that clipping, which has been passed down in the family.
"I didn't really think about that our skin color was different or anything like that. We were going on a field trip. I met a cool little girl and we got on and I didn't really think a whole lot about it," Chandler said via Zoom.
Decades later, both families have still held on to that clipping, now nearly six decades old. It has become an iconic family heirloom and a story both women are proud of.
Finding this clipping led Baker to search for Chandler online.
"When my brother first told me that I was going to be interviewed, I said, 'I wonder if Kelcey is still around and where is she?'" Baker explained. "I started going through Facebook and I looked and saw the name. I said, 'Let me see if by chance it's her.'"
And it was Chandler. The two began talking via Facebook, which quickly turned into a phone conversation.
"We were just texting back and forth like, 'Oh my God.' It was one of those moments, like oh my God," Baker said.
"I feel like, ah now I know why I connected with her, because I feel like we will be friends. I invited her to come visit New Zealand," Chandler added. "I think that experience planted the seed to realize that everybody is the same. It's your attitude that's different."
Baker agreed to visit New Zealand soon. She hopes to travel more when she retires from her job in the medical field.
The two have vowed to stay friends and be connected no matter how many miles separate them.
"One thing that she said to me that really touched my heart … she said meeting me impacted her life forever. She said, 'I was just thinking about you' and wow, that just really blew me away. You were thinking about me, someone on the other side of the world, somebody who don't look like me, who didn't grow up with me had me on their mind. What a moment," Baker said. "It gives me a sense of hope that one day, People of Color, people won't look at us for the color of our skin, but for who we are."