The Platt Children
In 1954, McCall again brought national attention to Lake County when he was asked by the school board to uphold their decision to ban five children from a white public school in Mount Dora after parents and teachers suspected them to be "Negro". Birth and school records from their native state had the Platt children listed as caucasian, and State Attorney Jesse Hunter represented the Platts in a case before Judge Truman Futch. McCall was accused of making speeches about this incident to the National Association for the Advancement of White People. But threats and violence against the Platts forced the children to enroll in the Mt. Dora Christian Home and Bible School, a private school not subject to segregation laws in place at the time. On October 18, 1955, a court ruled that the children could attend white public school. By then the Platt family had decided to move away from Florida.
Read more about this topic: Willis V. Mc Call
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“Nobody can misunderstand a boy like his own mother.... Mothers at present can bring children into the world, but this performance is apt to mark the end of their capacities. They can’t even attend to the elementary animal requirements of their offspring. It is quite surprising how many children survive in spite of their mothers.”
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