There is a saying that children learn what they live. I believe this to be true. I was almost fifteen years old when we moved from “The Bottom.” Because of individual and systemic racism, we lived in abject poverty the entire time. Black people were still denied basic civil and human rights and used separate and inferior facilities. Many black children were too young to understand why this was happening. Black parents didn’t know why this was happening and didn’t know how to explain racism and discrimination to their children. We couldn’t help but feel penalized for having a darker skin color.
Many organizations were developed to campaign for civil rights. I grew up listening to and singing “We Shall Overcome,” while black people and many leaders who stood for equal rights and backed the aspirations of the poor, were assassinated. Federal lawsuits granting rights to black people and other people of color were ignored in Southern states. Protests erupted throughout the South. Even though these racists’ acts were more prevalent in the South, black people in non-southern states also were subjected to humiliation and discrimination.
People who looked like me were lynched, brutally beaten, murdered, bombed, raped, and falsely imprisoned. MaDear and Dad were concerned about our safety. It was difficult to know who was racist and who was not. White supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan were opposed to the civil rights movement and used violence and murder to suppress black people. The hatred of white bigots influenced the masses of other white people. If they felt this hatred toward people of color, their children were taught to feel the same way. They were racists in training. The white people who didn’t feel hate in their hearts, were afraid to speak out against these injustices. There seemed to be no home in the United States for us. The overall message seemed to be we had to behave like the oppressor wanted us to, or we would be killed and the people who tried to help would meet the same fate.
There is another saying that children should be seen and not heard. MaDear and especially Dad did not believe this. Dad encouraged my siblings and me to discuss our thoughts, and he tried to provide answers. Some other children did not have these outlets. The black adults were frustrated, and unfortunately some took their frustrations out on the closest people to them, their children or spouses. MaDear and Dad had positive outlets for their frustrations through prayer, reading the Bible, church, and wisdom from Aunt Nora and Cousin Fessor. Dad loved to read and write and MaDear loved to listen to gospel great, Mahalia Jackson, on the radio. On many days, I heard her humming along to her powerful and inspirational songs.
Read more in my memoir. It’s available for purchase in the book section of this blog.
One of the most important lessons I learned while living in “The Bottom” is to enjoy life’s journey. Madear and Dad taught us that we can’t control other people, but we can control ourselves. We learned hard lessons in life and were taught the importance of choices and consequences. We were expected to think before acting and behave accordingly. Living in the bottom was the beginning of my purpose driven life. I had something to look forward to and was on my way to opportunity!
References
“Black Panther Party”. Wikipedia. Accessed December 13, 2019.
“Black Power Movement”. Wikipedia. Accessed December 13, 2019.