19 Neighbors is a series of 19 stories about Western Pennsylvanians and how they are helping, hoping and coping during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On his last day of high school classes — online — Cecil Price III, the student body president and valedictorian at Obama Academy 6-12, was buoyant and excited, looking toward his future.
That night, the city where he’ll attend college in the fall, Atlanta, erupted into a scene of marches and fire, outrage and protest over the death of George Floyd, a black man, in police custody in Minneapolis. The next day, it would spread to Downtown Pittsburgh, and on Monday to East Liberty, blocks from his high school.
He stood on the school’s steps on a pristine June afternoon of azure skies and golden sun. When asked what he makes of what he has seen play out in America over the past three months, he took a long pause and a deep breath.
“This whole scenario has brought account to the racial inequalities that affect minorities for centuries. It’s nothing new. It’s nothing that we don’t know about it. But because of this pandemic, it has been made clear that this social norm is not normal.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare underlying issues of racial inequity in the United States, he said. From the deaths and economic calamity caused by the virus to the working conditions of low-wage but “essential” workers, people of color have borne the brunt disproportionately.
“Earlier this year, my class read a book, ‘Between the World and Me’ by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Essentially, he said that the idea of race and racism has been manipulated in order to control and destroy the black bodies in America,” Mr. Price said.
“We need to understand that in order to overcome anything, we need a collective plan and collective organization with the same ideas and morals so we can further our endeavors as a people.”
For him right now, that means “me being involved as a student, making sure I’m well-informed. Making sure my fellow students are well-informed. Make sure that I'm within the realm of positive change.”
That included voting for the very first time in last week’s primary elections.
“I couldn’t sleep the night before,” he said. “It was amazing. I was so excited. We got up at 6 a.m. to take my stepdad to work and then went straight after to vote. I was like, ‘This is solidifying that I’m an adult and I have my rights and can make a change.’”
Amid an anxious and extraordinary epoch of American history, this 18-year-old son of immigrants and rising freshman at Morehouse College is an upbeat optimist, albeit with both feet firmly planted in reality.
The National Honors Society member and straight-A student was deeply involved in planning for his senior prom, class project and trip. That none of it came to fruition stings. But he’s also well aware that there are much bigger things at stake.
“As a senior, yes, I’m disappointed, but as someone who looks at the larger picture, I have not heard that any of my fellow students are sick or in the hospital. Their families are good, their families are safe. No one has died. To know that they are OK, that’s the greatest thing I can ask for.”
He has kept in regular touch with many of his classmates. They’ll participate in a graduation parade Thursday at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary across the street from the school, and a virtual graduation ceremony on June 14. Had he known on March 13 that it would be his last day of in-person school, “I would tell myself to not worry, to put it all in God's hands,” he said.
“You can’t control every scenario. You just have to make sure you’re prepared and kind of order your steps and make sure that your fellow students are taken care of and yourself in the midst of strife.”
To that end, he penned a letter to the editor that was printed in the Post-Gazette in late March. It was dedicated not only to his classmates, but to the Class of 2020 nationwide.
“I understand everyone’s frustration on the possibility that we may not experience the milestones that we waited so long for,” he wrote. “This moment of uncertainty is here, but I know that as long as we are united in the efforts to cease this pandemic, it shall soon pass.
“We are strong. We are resilient. We are intelligent. We are gifted. We are talented. We are capable. We are the Class of 2020!”
This humble son of a Haitian father and Jamaican mother is about to seek his own piece of the American dream. His mother is proud — and amazed.
“I was the first to graduate high school and college in my immediate family, and I did OK, but I was like walking into the dark,” Cecelia Price-Knight said. “But him, he’s always been disciplined and organized to a great many levels that I can’t even fathom for someone his age. … I’m glad that God gave him as a gift to me.
“I want him to be a great man and a great human being and to be able to build everyone up, every color. Because we are all one human race.”
He used to do his homework and help her at the Jamaican restaurant she and her husband owned for several years nearby on Broad Street. Like any good mother, she’s kept a watchful eye over him. But she is acquainted with a specific anxiety that African American mothers know too well.
“He’s tall. He looks like a grown man but he’s only 18,” she said.
He’s had his driver’s license for some time now, but she’ll only let him use the family vehicle on rare occasions.
“I've always been afraid that if I send him out there, that he might not come back to me, that they might kill him. And it could be police or someone who is African American and tries to fight him. I try to protect him so that he can be alive to continue his journey.”
That journey will take him in August, to Atlanta, where his father lives and where he’ll make his first leap as an adult into this beautiful and terrible world, to paraphrase Pulitzer Prize nominee Frederick Buechner, who briefly lived in East Liberty.
Mr. Price, the recipient of a prestigious Oprah Winfrey endowed scholarship at Morehouse, will study economics and political science on a pre-law track at the historically black college.
“I don’t know what my life may look like four years from now, but I want to … reform our education system or our government system,” he said. “I believe as a young black man in this world I need to understand what the law is — the democracy, the policy … to know what my rights are in this world.”
In his valedictory address to his classmates that will be delivered in the virtual ceremony, Mr. Price acknowledges the extraordinary events of 2020 and implored his peers to use this adversity as a launching pad.
“This generation has been tested by a crisis and pandemic that steels our resolve and proves our resilience. Even though we may soon depart to a college or university, trade, military, or even the work force, we must continue to strive for excellence. … We chose unity over fear, unity over struggle, and unity over inconvenience,” he says before invoking the school’s motto.
“In the face of our common dangers, and through our moments of hardship, let us remember these timeless words: Nothing in life is so complicated that it cannot be achieved by discipline and hard work!”
Dan Gigler: dgigler@post-gazette.com; Twitter @gigs412
First Published: June 9, 2020, 11:07 a.m.
