September 29, 2020
The Atlantic interviewed Fred Brewington as part of its five-part series “The Firsts,” which profiles children who helped desegregate America’s schools. Mr. Brewington remembered, as a nine-year-old boy attending Lindner Place Elementary School in Malverne, how he and his mother had to map out his route to school so he could arrive there safely as the school became desegregated. “She told me to be on my best behavior and not to walk on anybody’s lawn, because remember they don’t want you over there anyway,” he said.