Leah Harper Bowron on *Colorblind*: School Integration, Racism, Bullying, and Growing Up in 1960s Alabama

Leah Harper Bowron on Colorblind: School Integration, Racism, Bullying, and Growing Up in 1960s AlabamaIn this episode of The Neil Haley Show, Neil “The Media Giant” Haley welcomes attorney and author Leah Harper Bowron to discuss the re-release of her young adult novel Colorblind. Inspired by Bowron’s own sixth-grade experience in Montgomery, Alabama, the novel explores school integration, racism, bullying, courage, and the complicated realities children witnessed while growing up in the segregated South during the late 1960s.Bowron’s professional background is in law. She worked in areas including real estate, wills and trusts, estate matters, and bankruptcy. Years of legal writing gave her a strong foundation, but she eventually decided she would rather tell fictional stories than spend all of her time writing legal documents.Colorblind became her first novel. Originally written approximately eight years ago, the book has now been re-released for a new generation of readers.The story is heavily influenced by Bowron’s childhood. In 1968, she was a sixth-grade student in an all-white public school in Montgomery when integration began changing the school system around her.Bowron remembers Alabama as an openly segregated society. Separate facilities for Black and white citizens were still part of everyday life, and racial attitudes were deeply ingrained in many communities.One of the first steps toward integrating her elementary school, she explains, was bringing an African American teacher into the previously all-white school before Black students were bused there.That experience became the foundation for Colorblind.The fictional teacher, Miss Loomis, is modeled after the actual African American teacher Bowron remembers from sixth grade. In the novel, Bowron intentionally makes Miss Loomis older, smaller, and more physically fragile to emphasize the tremendous pressure and fear surrounding her position.Imagine entering a school where many children had grown up hearing racist beliefs and suddenly becoming an authority figure responsible for teaching them.But the discrimination did not come only from students.Bowron remembers seeing racial separation among the adults as well. During lunch, the African American teacher did not sit with the white faculty members. According to Bowron, she ate separately in her classroom, something the students noticed.Those moments deeply affected Bowron.She remembers feeling uncomfortable watching a teacher she respected being treated differently while also dealing with bullying herself. Two large boys in her sixth-grade class frequently taunted her, and those experiences influenced the bullies portrayed in the novel.In Colorblind, the same boys also torment Miss Loomis, demonstrating how racism and bullying can reinforce each other when authority figures fail to intervene.Bowron says Miss Loomis taught English, which was her favorite subject. One of the teacher’s lasting influences was introducing students to poetry, including works by Black poets Bowron had never encountered before. Those classroom experiences helped expand her understanding of literature and the world outside the culture in which she had grown up.Although Colorblind is based on real experiences, Bowron stresses that it is fiction. She changed characters, personalities, ages, and circumstances to strengthen the story.She also conducted historical research to recreate the atmosphere of the era. Clothing, cultural references, social attitudes, popular trends, and major events help transport readers back to the late 1960s. Bell-bottoms, paisley clothing, mood rings, and other details allow younger readers to experience the period beyond simply reading dates in a history book.Bowron wrote the novel primarily for young adults because she would love to see it used in middle and high school classrooms.Her goal is not simply to tell readers that segregation happened. She wants students to imagine what it actually felt like to sit inside a classroom during a period of tremendous social change.What would it feel like to watch a teacher face racism every day? What happens when adults model prejudice for children? How does a young person decide what is right when their family, school, and community may offer conflicting messages?Bowron also incorporates her own family experience into the story. She describes her father, a lawyer, as supportive of civil-rights legislation, while her mother came from a small Alabama community where deeply rooted racial attitudes were harder to overcome.That contrast gave Bowron an early understanding that prejudice could exist even inside the same family.During the interview, Bowron and Neil also discuss modern discrimination. Bowron draws parallels between the prejudice she witnessed in the 1960s and what she personally views as present-day antisemitism and other forms of social exclusion. Those comparisons reflect her own observations and perspective.Ultimately, Colorblind is intended to encourage conversation.Bowron wants young people to compare the challenges faced by students in 1967 and 1968 with issues they encounter today. She also hopes adults will enjoy revisiting the period and reflecting on how much society has changed—and where difficult conversations still remain.The newly released edition has already gained attention among young adult readers, and Bowron hopes to expand its reach into schools, libraries, book clubs, and potentially film.She is also working on a children’s book for younger readers titled Ferguson Bobo, set on a sheep farm in Ireland.Readers can find Leah Harper Bowron’s Colorblind on Amazon and through major booksellers.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-neil-haley-show--6503396/support.