Wonderful Life: Breaking barriers

Ana Pacheco | For The New Mexican

5/5/2008 - 4/30/08

A desire to help others has motivated Living Treasure Carnis Salisbury, 94, since she studied under 'Great Debater' Melvin B. Tolson in 1930s

Ninety-four-year-old Carnis Salisbury has vivid memories of her English professor at Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, in the 1930s. His name was Melvin B. Tolson, and he stood out from the rest of the faculty.

"He always walked around campus with his head down, mumbling to himself. He didn't care if he was wearing two different colored shoes because he was always planning and thinking," the Albuquerque resident says. "He was a genius."

Last year, moviegoers were introduced to Tolson's genius in the film The Great Debaters, which was directed by Denzel Washington, who also played the lead role. The movie is based on an article about the Wiley College debate team that ran in the spring 1997 issue of the magazine American Legacy.

The Great Debaters is a biographical account of a group of black students who, under Tolson's direction, went on to break racial barriers and create history as they defeated all-white debate teams from the University of Michigan Law School, the University of Southern California and other schools.

Those days were memorable in other ways for Salisbury, who graduated from Wiley College in 1934, where she also worked as a student counselor and religious instructor for 15 years.

"I was paid $35 a month, plus room and board. That wasn't a lot money, but I still managed to lend money to my friends," she says.

Salisbury, who was born in 1914, is the daughter of the Rev. William Henry Hightower and Bertha Bluitt. Her father was a Methodist minister who worked in towns throughout Texas. The family later moved to Marshall so the children could be educated. "My father insisted that we all get a certificate to teach, otherwise we'd end up working in someone's kitchen," she says.

Hightower's emphasis on education wasn't the only value he taught his children. "Life wasn't easy for anybody in those days, but my father believed in obeying the law," Salisbury says. "As he used to say, 'Do not segregate yourself. Stay away from those places that don't allow blacks. Don't sit in the back of the bus. Just walk.' "

These acts of defiance have stuck with Salisbury throughout her life. She and her husband, Oliver, moved to Albuquerque from Washington, D.C., in 1961. Both had good jobs as research clerks with the federal government, but Oliver suffered from asthma and thought the drier climate would be better for his health. His brother, Stephen, and his wife, Frances, were teachers at the Albuquerque Indian School.

"Back then, there were 27 black families living in Albuquerque. Most were all living near Kirtland Air Force Base or on Texas Avenue — there was no other suitable housing for blacks," Salisbury says. "People appeared to be so friendly here. They'd come up to you and hug you, but it was superficial.

"They'd invite you to their party, but they didn't want you living next door."

This early experience prompted the couple to become active participants in the movement that helped establish Albuquerque's Fair Housing Ordinance.

While doing community volunteer work, Oliver got a job working for the state as a social worker, and Carnis continued working for the federal government at the Census Bureau and the Internal Revenue Service. In 1974, she got her dream job with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, where she worked until she retied in 1981.

"That job was my calling," Salisbury says. "I would have worked there for free."

Her work with the EEOC was reminiscent of her father's work with the Methodist Church. "In those days, if you lost your job or had some other type of problem, you didn't go to an attorney — you went to the minister for help," she says.

The couple raised their two daughters in Albuquerque and were also blessed with two grandsons and one great-grandson. Oliver died in 1993 of respiratory failure.

Salisbury's positive attitude and innate desire to help others have not gone unnoticed. She has received numerous honors, including Albuquerque's first Living Treasure Award in 1998. As Salisbury says, "My sister once told me that you never have to have a bad day. If you feel one coming up, you go back in your memory and pull up a blue ribbon day and relive it."

Ana Pacheco is the founder and publisher of La Herencia, a culture and history magazine (www.herencia.com). Her weekly tribute to our community elders appears every Tuesday.