make upon entering Lakeside. In the early 1980s, the school was actively trying to recruit more black students, though it had no real plan on how to go about it. Lakeside had started to admit blacks in 1965, launching a summer program for minority kids from the Central Area. The Lakeside Educational Enrichment Program, or LEEP, aimed to give eighth and ninth graders remedial instruction and to boost their academic confidence. Backed by federal funds, it was one of several similar programs across the country, all aiming to increase the enrollment of black students at private schools at a time when such schools were coming under attack as racist and elitist. At Lakeside, three of the sixty boys in the program were chosen to integrate the school and given scholarships.
Since then, a trickle of black students had entered the school. The first year Lakeside actually kept track of its enrollment by racial categories was 1980, when it tallied 21 African-American students out of a student body of 627. Recruitment consisted primarily of skimming the standout summer LEEP students. Ronnie Cunningham, for example, the first black student to make it through Lakeside from fifth grade all the way to graduation, started in 1979 after he had tagged along with his older sister to LEEP. Ronnie was asked to enroll after the counselors noticed him doing math problems faster than the kids actually in the program. It happened that Ronnieâs mother knew Eric Hamptonâs dad, and she told him about the school.
Charlie Hampton was born in Lake Providence, Louisiana, right on the Mississippi River, the son of an army serviceman and a mother who worked as a domestic. The family moved around a lot, following Charlieâs father as he was posted to army bases in North Carolina, Texas, West Germany, south of Seattle in Tacoma, and finally back to Louisiana. Charlie studied engineering at Southern University in Baton Rouge and became the first in his family to graduate from college. In the late 1960s he took a job at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Eastern Washington, where he worked on a project to condense and solidify nuclear waste. When he figured out the job at Hanford wasnât for him, he moved his familyâEric and his older brother had already been bornâto Seattle. Charlie studied business at the University of Washington and ended up managing real estate for the city of Seattle.
The Hampton family lived in the âmiddle classâ Madrona neighborhood in the Central Area, an area southeast of William Groseâs property. When he was nine years old, Eric started to play on Willie McClainâs CAYA basketball team. On days when they werenât over at the McClainâs, it was more than likely that Damian and JT were at the Hamptons. âThey spent almost as much time at my house as they did at their own, eating, sleeping, and everything else,â says Charlie Hampton, a compact, energetic man with a thick mustache and a boisterous laugh. âWe were the quote ârich folks on the block.â â
Eric went to the public elementary school down the street, where heâd been tracked into the âgiftedâ program. After Charlie Hampton went out to have a look at Lakeside, he figured there was no reason not to try to get his son the best education Seattle had to offer, telling Eric, âThese same snotty-nosed rich kids you see around here will be the same people running this country in thirty years. Maybe itâs your break in life, or maybe itâs not your break in life, but youâll know how the rest of the world lives. You wonât have to fear anybody, you know what you got is as good as what they got, you know that youâre just as smart as anybody.â
Eric had other ideas. âIn the morning, I used to cry, âI donât want to go to this school!â â he says. âI remember just feeling isolated. I was the only little black kid. I didnât know
Since then, a trickle of black students had entered the school. The first year Lakeside actually kept track of its enrollment by racial categories was 1980, when it tallied 21 African-American students out of a student body of 627. Recruitment consisted primarily of skimming the standout summer LEEP students. Ronnie Cunningham, for example, the first black student to make it through Lakeside from fifth grade all the way to graduation, started in 1979 after he had tagged along with his older sister to LEEP. Ronnie was asked to enroll after the counselors noticed him doing math problems faster than the kids actually in the program. It happened that Ronnieâs mother knew Eric Hamptonâs dad, and she told him about the school.
Charlie Hampton was born in Lake Providence, Louisiana, right on the Mississippi River, the son of an army serviceman and a mother who worked as a domestic. The family moved around a lot, following Charlieâs father as he was posted to army bases in North Carolina, Texas, West Germany, south of Seattle in Tacoma, and finally back to Louisiana. Charlie studied engineering at Southern University in Baton Rouge and became the first in his family to graduate from college. In the late 1960s he took a job at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Eastern Washington, where he worked on a project to condense and solidify nuclear waste. When he figured out the job at Hanford wasnât for him, he moved his familyâEric and his older brother had already been bornâto Seattle. Charlie studied business at the University of Washington and ended up managing real estate for the city of Seattle.
The Hampton family lived in the âmiddle classâ Madrona neighborhood in the Central Area, an area southeast of William Groseâs property. When he was nine years old, Eric started to play on Willie McClainâs CAYA basketball team. On days when they werenât over at the McClainâs, it was more than likely that Damian and JT were at the Hamptons. âThey spent almost as much time at my house as they did at their own, eating, sleeping, and everything else,â says Charlie Hampton, a compact, energetic man with a thick mustache and a boisterous laugh. âWe were the quote ârich folks on the block.â â
Eric went to the public elementary school down the street, where heâd been tracked into the âgiftedâ program. After Charlie Hampton went out to have a look at Lakeside, he figured there was no reason not to try to get his son the best education Seattle had to offer, telling Eric, âThese same snotty-nosed rich kids you see around here will be the same people running this country in thirty years. Maybe itâs your break in life, or maybe itâs not your break in life, but youâll know how the rest of the world lives. You wonât have to fear anybody, you know what you got is as good as what they got, you know that youâre just as smart as anybody.â
Eric had other ideas. âIn the morning, I used to cry, âI donât want to go to this school!â â he says. âI remember just feeling isolated. I was the only little black kid. I didnât know
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