ABSTRACT

In this interview, my grandpa, Dr. Michael Kelly, talks about what school was like before and after the Civil Rights Movement. Towards the end, he talks about how we can help schools today. Since he was a teacher, his experiences were different than the students. He liked how schools were more diverse, and never had a problem with it.

RESEARCH

In 1945, it was decided that kids of different races should be able to attend schools. The first school to allow this was Little Rock High School. Most people did not agree with this, and stopped going to school for a while. After a while, the people started to realize that the people of different races were not going to leave, and they started going back to the schools.

SOURCES

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/civil_rights_education.htm

http://www.civilrights.org/resources/civilrights101/desegregation.html

http://www.civilrights.org/education/brown/

Mukhtar Stones

5/18/15

History-Roy

Oral History Interview: Oreva Stones

Abstract:

For my Oral Interview project for African American History, I choose my grandmother Oreva Stones. What was most compelling about interviewing her was her belief that the system of America Are not doing anything about the problems that African Americans make and all people. She believed that the times had gotten better, but us as people are still having to go through the same problems and difficulties all over again. She connected her beliefs with racism in the workforce, education for blacks during her time,and even going to public places. Such as the Brown V. Board of Education case, part of that her Aunt on her father's side was apart of the case. Her Aunt had bad heart problems and it was hard for her to walk to the black schools which was farther than the white schools which was closer. She believes that all people should be treated equally no matter what and that we should change the system.

Research:

Part of the Brown V. Board of Education, the NAACP created the “separate but equal” doctrine as part of segregating blacks from whites in public school education in 1954. Even though this doctrine was made, the outcome wasn't as it was said to be, black neighborhood schools did not have good educational systems for black students, which made black parents angry to the point where they got the supreme court involved. The case was a part of several other cases, taking place in Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, and Delaware. There were several black children through their legal representatives, went out to seek admission for public schools that required or permitted racial segregation.

Sources-

http://www.lawnix.com/cases/brown-board-education.html

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/rights/landmark_brown.html

Transcript:

Thursday, 4/30/15

Time 4:30 Grandmother's house

Interview questions:

M.S: Okay, so hello Nanna.

O.S: Hello Mukhtar, how are you today?

M.S: I'm feeling good. Can you give us your full name?

O.S: Oreva Stones

M.S: Oreva stones and you are the mother of my father jihad stones, and when were you born.

O.S: February the third, 1950

M.S: So, as part of your childhood, how did you experience the role of your race in society or other races?

O.S: Well I found out about slavery when I was seven cause my great grandmother was a slave, and I was very upset, very upset, but I didn't really experience racism until I went to Junior high school, because the junior high school I went to was majority white.

M.S: Oh!

O.S: And that's when I experienced racism.

M.S: So do you think the roles that races were set for have changed and are differently now?

O.S: Uh I don't know about differently I would say its more undercover now it ain't so straight outward like it was then, but basically its the same.

M.S: You still think it's the same?

O.S: Um, because we still haven to march and protest after the sixties. When we tore up our neighborhoods, and I was living on a block where they uhh.. In this neighborhood, where I accessorize all the people riding turning over buses, and breaking news stories. You know, and we... in 2015 have to do that again, so to me we had not really did anything. We didn't really move from those things. You know we're still being treated the same way.

M.S: Yeah um, and as a racial society we're stuck in the same place. We're not doing anything, and so when something happens you try to change it but it's not, we're not doing it right. Like what they're doing in Baltimore

O.S: I think now in my opinion is that they know the way um minorities are treated is wrong

M.S: Right

O.S: And instead of treating us right, they still want to go by the old laws and makes us do other kind of things to change the law, when its wrong, and they know it's wrong. They should just change the law without having us going through all changes they makes us make

M.S: Yeah I do see what your saying there.So what do you remember from and during the Civil Rights movements?

O.S: Um...well church of the advocate had black power convention and I believe it was sixty seven, sixty eight, and I lived down the street from there. So I experience uh... the movement I was involved in the movement. Umm the people were marching up and down the avenues with rifles and I witnessed all of that. A guy I was dating was in the national guard and the guys marching up the avenue with rifles, you know. People came all over from everywhere, Chicago, uhh I meet so many interest in people umm...it was...it really changed a lot for me.

M.S: Wow. So tell me how you experience racism in high school, but did you experience a lot of racial segregation, during the Jim Crow Laws?

O.S: No no, that was uhh.. before my time and more down south. It weren't so Jim Crow as we know separate bathrooms and and water fountains and all that, I didn't experience none of that.

M.S: Ohh, I do know that it was more, I mean in the south, but I do know it had some influence on the north, so I was wondering if like is there any occasions you were being segregated.

O.S: No not that way my my experience was was things we just knew we couldn't do because we were black, ya' know

M.S: Oh can you give me a few things.

O.S: Uh, lets see what I could give you well there wast that many people playing football or basketball or baseball or or things like that and ya' know there were no umm managers in the job situation or supervisors, none of that none of that were black when I was a little girl, ya' know by time I got out of high school and stuff they were just changing where they would let us get those positions at work. But where as before my job seniority when you got seniority you could move up, but when they start letting the black people moved up, instead of just moving up because of the seniority they would make us take test to get the position the same position the white people got we would have to take test in order to get those positions

M.S: Well it's somewhat like that now but not racially with sometimes getting jobs or getting into schools, so i think i think i know what you're saying there. Um how was the educational system back then and how do you think it's different now.

O.S: Umm... I think it's better now because you know my aunt your great aunt was in that brown vs the board of education  she was involved in that because my aunt had heart problems, and to walk to school was a hard on her because her heart so this is how she got involved in that because the white schools were closer to her and she could walk without the problem and she had to walk the way to get to black schools and that's how she got involved i have a jet magazine that they were in did i ever show that to you?

M.S: No but that's like interesting because we were just learning about that in school

O.S: Hahahaha!

M.S: Yeah so I... such a great coincidence.keep on going.

O.S: So my so my aunt was involved in that, so i do know a little about that but umm.. when I went to school umm the neighborhood schools were all black..

M.S: All black?

O.S: Mhm. And umm I went out to neighborhood to school which is how I ended up in a school that was majority white.

M.S: So that's somewhat like that now, majority of the neighborhood schools are black, now they have white students, and other racial groups, but mainly black and white. More black than white, so I see what your saying it has change, it has gotten better, which is which is good for the African American society more today.

O.S: Yeah because you had to go to the school in your neighborhood, now the kids can go to any school they wanna go to any school they qualify to go to.

M.S: SO when you were growing up what was it like to be a younger Black/African American girl?

O.S: I didn't have a problem growing up because the whole neighborhood were, ya' know everywhere I went it was majority black. You know what I mean, its only going to be black like in town or or um to the movies n stuff, and that's when i I saw racism because we would be in line and they would wait on the white people before they would wait on us and um they wouldn't want us to sit in seats that weren't that really good or comfortable, where they would give white people with better seats, seating arrangements and things like that. That wasn't until I got older, when I was a little girl I didn't really experience but when i started getting older and started going out of the neighborhood, going places where I saw that at.

M.S: At least its not like that now cause I would have a fit at least you get your own seat cause I would have a fit.

O.S: Yeah.

M.S: When you were growing up did you have black and white friends, white friends, or just black friends.

O.S: When I started junior high I started making white friends, up to that point I didn't have any white friends.

M.S: Oh okay, not even now.

O.S: Oh now I have white friends, but then I didn't, so I've learned to expect people for who they are not just uh she white or she Puerto Rican or ya know you learn to treat people quarter to how they treat you and that's how you get along with people.

M.S: Yeah that's how the world should work.

O.S: That's how the world should work.

M.S: Do you believe all people should have equal rights? No matter who they are?

O.S: No matter who they are.

M.S: Awesome! Have you ever encountered racism, from a police man, teacher, or a random person?

O.S: When I first started working, and this will be seventies after your dad was born, when I started working, at the Philadelphia gas works, that's when I saw really opened racism, umm me and my closest friend, my closest friend at the time was white her name was Debbie and we did almost everything together and she got a cold i got a cold, and when she went to our dispensary, they gave her more medicine or better medicine then they gave me, she would go and she would "Reeva go down to the dispensary, they give you so and so.", but they would never give me the same things that they gave her.

M.S: Oh did she even know that?

O.S: And this is this is like when I started working at the gas company in the 80s, no she didn't know that because i never mentioned it to her at the time but that's when i started um... getting notes and again when i started working at the gas company, because we were melting in the sixties and you would go up o different places and you would learn that people are people but when I started working at the gas company I.. i started getting militating again because there was so much open racism.

M.S: Oh!

O.S: Ya' Know I had to threaten my job with getting a lawyer in order to get the position i should of gotten because of my seniority but they wanted to give it to this white girl and they thought I would let it go and i wouldn't. When i first started working at the gas company i was really amazed at how they did to black people and the black people would say "Reeva this is how it is here" and I would say not for me, because it's not right and I'm not gonna let them treat me like that so i had to get back to being militant and fighting for what i deserve.

M.S: You gotta fight for whats right.

O.S: Yes, you gotta fight for whats right.

M.S: If you could be more involved in the Civil Rights movement how much involvement would you contribute?

O.S: If I could be more involved...

M.S: That's a tie.

Abstract

In this interview, Lisa Kleiner looks back and remembers her life as a white woman in the North during the Civil Rights era of the 1960s. Lisa talks about what she had seen happening in the riots and protests and shares her perspective of the struggles that African Americans had while fighting for their civil and human rights. She also reflects on how she viewed African Americans in the 1960s vs. now in 2015. This interview offers the perspective of a white woman and how she felt about the violence and riots of the Civil Rights era and how it affects her, as well as other white people, today.

Research

White privilege in America has existed all throughout its history. Of course, it was a lot more obvious pre-Reconstruction and during the Jim Crow and Civil Rights era, however it still exists today. White privilege is the concept of which white people benefit from the [systemic and instiutionalized] oppression of people of color. White privilege is being taught that you are an individual rather than someone who is part of larger group of people, and thus creating the idea that racism, to white people, is acted upon by individual people rather than it being an entire system which oppresses everyone else. In the interview, Lisa Kleiner answered several questions indirectly referring to being privileged in America during the 1960s. During the interview, she states, “I don’t think people who are younger now, who are white, I don’t think that they really realize how bad things were.” Although she may not have realized it, this statement accurately portrays how white people today could not possibly understand what it’s like to live in a society that systematically oppresses you [racially]. It’s also important to note that the riots caused by literal centuries of oppression that arose in the Civil Rights era are incredibly similar to the riots happening right now because of the unjust murders of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and hundreds of others.

Sources

• http://www.salon.com/2015/04/10/white_americas_racial_illiteracy_why_our_national_conversation_is_poisoned_from_the_start_partner/

• http://mic.com/articles/89653/7-actual-facts-that-prove-white-privilege-exists-in-america

• http://prospect.org/article/new-jim-crow-0

Transcript exerpt

Jack: How do you view race?

Lisa: Well, um, I think race is just an, uh, artificial concept that was created by people, um, to make other people seem more different to, you know, create more differences among people than there are because really, everybody knows we all came from the same place in Africa. And over the years people changed and had different characteristics on the outside. But everybody is the same on the inside, and there’s very little difference in genetics between different races. It’s like a tiny amount. So it’s really one way people have made, people look different from each other because, I guess that’s useful to some people because if they feel frightened or something.

Jack: So do you believe it’s a socially constructed idea?

Lisa: Yes, definitely.

Jack: Do you believe that at any point in your life you used to be racist or prejudice? Especially during the height of the Civil Rights Era?

Lisa: Sure. I think everybody is prejudiced. And I think the best thing you can do is to recoginize that and try to work on it. Well, during the Civil Rights Era I was a teenager, I was the same age you are as I was explaining in the 1960s, and I think that I was - actually I was less prejudice because when I grew up I was, even though I knew black people as a child, I never thought about it and I never thought about what their situation was. And my parents weren’t prejudice at all. I mean they didn’t believe in it. So when all these things started in the ‘60s, and I found out about the lack of Civil Rights and everything, then I was really shocked. I was very shocked as a teenager to hear that and to see. I heard on television when I was your age or younger I saw the riots and I saw them letting guard dogs loose on people and water canons and, you know, all those kinds of things were happening. And they happened in my town too. There were riots. So it was kind of scary but it was something that I sort of understood, you know, that it was something really bad that happened. So that’s why people were rioting. So I don’t think it made me more prejudice but it made me know about it. I didn’t even know about some of that stuff.

Jack: Do you think that any of that affected who you are right now?

Lisa: You mean in the 1960s, did that affect how I am now, you mean?

Jack: Yes.

Lisa; Um, yeah, I think, I just, yeah because I get more scared if there’s some kind of riot, a race riot, or racial incident. It’s very scary to me because I think it could all happen again and it seems like it hasn’t gone away. These, you know, terrible prejudices that go on haven’t gone away. So it’s kind of discouraging and depressing because I feel like things haven’t gotten better in one way, and I guess some ways they have, but it’s still here. So it definitely had an impact on me as a child or a teenager because I have seen how things can be really bad. And I don’t think people who are younger now, who are white, I don’t think that they really realize how bad things were.

Jack: Were you ever in a segregated school?

Lisa: No. Not in the sense that you would - because I grew up in New Jersey and we had integrated public schools. But what happened was that, what they would call De Facto segregation because I lived in a neighborhood that was all white, so everyone who went to the school was white. And all of a sudden things changed, and this is in the 1960s around 1964, and it happened here too, the black people moved into the white neighborhoods and the white people moved out. So all of a sudden my school became from all white to all black almost over night. And we moved to another town and the school wasn’t segregated but there were, it was almost all white, but there were a few black kids in the schools. Because there were a few black families in the town and they were only supposed to live in this one certain neighborhood. So there were maybe three black kids in my high school class as a senior and there were two hundred kids.

Jack: Do you think that the schools nowadays are segregated, not by law, but significantly one race because of what happened in the ‘60s or do you think it might be that way because of racism?

Lisa: No I think it’s because of racism. Because it’s the same thing. Because after they tried to desegregate the schools in the 1960s, the white poeple all moved out or they sent their kids to private school. So it’s definitely true in some parts, like say Philadelphia, some neighborhoods are almost totally black like North Philadelphia. So everyone who goes to school there is black in the public schools. And the same is true in our neighborhood in Mt. Airey where a lot of parents, well black and white parents, send their children to private school. So it sort of depends on how much money you have now. So it’s sort of segregation by money but it’s based on racism at the bottom.

Jack:  Have you ever felt guilty or proud to be a white woman during the Civil Rights Movement?

Lisa: I felt really guilty. I don’t know if I felt proud, I mean. I felt proud when I saw all the people when Martin Luther King made his speech in Washington and they showed all the people there in the audience listening to him. I would say about a third or half the people, of all those tens of thousands of people, it looked like there were quite a few white people there, and I was really proud that there were white people who wanted to try to help. And I was always really proud that the rabbi of our temple marched with Martin Luther King and he was actually in jail with him when they had that terrible riot at the Edmunds Pettice Bridge in Alabama, in Birmingham jail. I was very proud of that.

Jack: When were you first introduced to the idea of race?

Lisa: This sounds really elitist but, you know, when I was little we had a house, and my father was a doctor. And my mother didn’t work outside the home but she had two children and in those days it was common for the doctor’s wife to have somebody come in and help clean. So my mother had the lady next door who had an African American woman who came in and cleaned for her, so my mother asked if she could come in and cleaned for us once a week, so she came in and then, you know, of course, that was probably the first black person I had seen. At that age I was probably three or four.

Jack: How different do you think the Civil Rights Movement in the 60s is from the protests in Ferguson and in Baltimore and everywhere?

Abstract

In this interview, my grandmother, Margaret Kelly remembers and speaks on her live living in Wilmington, Delaware. When asked about heritage and their views, my grandmother talks about never being encouraged to act differently or rude towards African Americans. My grandmother shares about attending schools together and what it felt like to view the protests but never had any bad interactions with African Americans. I believe this interview reveals a look into different types of people no matter what the skin color. When asked if she had any friends who were racist towards Blacks my grandmother responded that she did not surround herself with those kind of people.

My name is Madeline Kelly, today is May 2, 2015. It is about 6:30 pm, I am interviewing Margret Kelly born April 26, 1948 in Wilmington, Delaware. This interview takes place in Allamuchy, New Jersey.

MK: How would you describe your parents when it comes to new ideas and new situations?

MK: I believe that they were very open, I think it was a generation that uh-mm, there's people whose parents had gone through a rough time and a’ made it, and I think they were very optimistic as far as their future and the future of their children.

MK: And uhh directly towards the topic of African Americans coming into your community and coming into their lives when they were younger as well?

MK: I do not recall my parents having too much interaction with blacks in their era, as I went to school after 3rd grade we did have a interaction with black children. It was never a problem, my parents never told us anything but to respect them and to treat them as we would any other person we came across.

MK: So your parents haven’t told you any stories about them growing up around African Americans or any of their interactions with them?

MK: No, I don’t know they had much interaction with Negroes.

MK: What did your group of friends look like when you were younger?

MK: uh-mm, average middle class children, parents were working, you know the regular 9 to 5 job, we probably went out to play after school uh-mm…

MK: Were they White?

MK: Yes, they were all White, yes.

MK: Did your group of friends evolve in color as you grew older? Or did they primarily stay White?

MK: A lot of my group of friends stayed in contact after we started High school, I did meet a lot of black children, when I went into High school. I had never had any problems we got along well, we ate lunch together. We spoke, we really didn’t have any problems. Uh-mm.

MK: And what year is this?

MK: And this would be in the uh-mm, this would be in the 60’s. I started High School in 1962, and I graduated in 66 so all through that time we had you know, a relationship with African Americans who were in our classes and so forth and never had any problems, we always got along well together.

MK: Do you happen to remember your first interaction with an African American?

MK: (Pause) Yes, that would have been back in my Elementary school a’ in 3rd grade the school I was attending, was integrated.

MK: was this, this was a catholic school?

MK: This was a catholic school, and the small catholic church, not far from where I went closed. And these children started coming to our school, that was my first interaction was in 3rd grade with black children and never had a problem.

MK: How did you feel during the Civil Right’s movement? During a’ protests and any other type of movement that African Americans projected?

MK: I did have a sincere feeling for them, uh-mm it was probably a little hard for me to understand all the facts completely. But I realized these are people a lot of them I went to school with and I thought of that when I saw these protests I thought ‘I went to school with these people.’ And that they were good people, and that they felt maybe portrayed or, or ya know there was someone, like Martin Luther King who, who was assassinated and the reaction I could understand. Do I agree with it? No, because I don’t agree with violence, but I can understand where they were probably coming from.

MK: Do you feel a sense of closeness to the idea of feeling mistreated or misunderstood because of our heritage of being Irish?

MK: Yes I do, I think that every nationality that came to the United states went through a period of unacceptance, and had to sort of earn their way. The blacks I think were a little different because they were slaves and they were freed. Just a whole different evolve, evolvement of things where they evolved differently than other nationalities that came to this Country. And a’ I think it still goes on to even today a great degree.

MK: Do you remember where you were during the march on Washington?

MK: I was probably living at home, with my mother. My father had passed away at that point. uh-mm, I remember thinking about it saying ‘wow, ya know look at all this destruction and everything else.’ and it was kind of a’ new to you, you know when you’re experiencing something like this for the first time it’s like, wow. I don’t think I had a yes or no about it, just kind of you sat back and you saw it on TV and you just kinda’ watched it. I but you know it was hard to think that people that I knew that were black were actually doing these things, I couldn't believe they would be burning houses and turning cars over and stuff like that. uh-mm, but basically I can’t say, it was like a new experience, you didn’t know how to react to it.

MK: Right, so did you watch Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech on television?

MK: Yes I did.

MK: And how did the speech make you feel the first time you heard it?

MK: I was very moved by his speech, I wouldn’t say I cried but my eyes certainly filled up. I thought it was just, his sentiments were just absolutely beautiful and they really related to my christian beliefs and I felt that he was correct. These people should not be treated the way that they were, that they were equal to the rest of us and his dream is really the way it should be.

MK: And where you were growing up at the time, were there any movements in that area?

MK: There were some, nothing like there was in major cities. I lived in Wilmington, Delaware at the time, a Philadelphia at the time I feel was much more active as far as reacting to all this, but a’ Wilmington itself was not as severe no.

MK: Is there a certain event you can remember that happened during the movement that you may have saw on TV, that shocked you or…

MK: You know shocked, I don’t know if i could even use that term, when I watched some of these things on TV, it was like, almost in disbelief. That you just kind of looked at this and said ‘wow is this really happening?’

MK: Right

MK: You know, it a’ it didn’t hit, the actually, the reality of it actually I don’t think really sunk in. Now were speaking of someone who’s some 18 years old and who’s never experienced anything like this, and it just never really hit me, watching this, this a variety of what was really going on, I don’t think I completely understood it.

MK: Within Wilmington did you ever witness any African Americans being treated poorly or differently? At a restaurant, maybe getting your hair done, anything like that?

MK: No, no I was not

MK: You didn’t witness anything at all?

MK: No, nothing at all.

MK: So, within the school you attended, the Catholic Elementary School and the Catholic High School did you feel that any of the teachers had a different…

MK: Attitude or?

MK: Attitude towards the African American students? Can you remember any of them?

MK: No, I really can’t recall anything either in Elementary School which was Catholic, High School was public, so consequently there was probably more African American students attending there. But I don’t I dont recall feeling, of course I wasn’t a black person, but as far from a White persons standpoint feeling that they were treated differently no.

MK: Do you remember having any friends or friends of friends in your group that felt very racist towards African Americans.

MK: No, no I didn’t. But I think you kind of chose your friends based on the way you grew up and who you associated with and I think everybody that I met like that I don’t think I would have stayed with. I don’t think that was part of my upbringing and how I was taught.

MK: And  my last question is, how are your feelings today on the evolution of race and how people are treated today versus how you felt they were growing up?

MK: I still think we have a lot to improve on that is not totally gone uh-mm and not just in the black but in other areas too that people have to learn to accept and to recognize and I, I do think we still have some ground we need to cover on it, most definitely. Things have not changed that greatly.

Research

When my grandmother was talking about Wilmington, Delaware it sounded peaceful and a very warm place. I decided to look deeper into what my grandmother was saying, maybe there was something she had missed. When I looked up Wilmington, Delaware the first thing that stood out was a site that read “Murder Town (a.k.a Wilmington, Delaware.) I thought, this could not be the same place my grandmother grew up in as a child. “Wilmington once again ranked third on the FBI's annual list of most violent cities among cities of comparable size. Wilmington also ranked fifth when compared to all cities with populations greater than 50,000, up from eighth in 2012.” I’ve decided to look deeper into when things took a change for the worse. In my research I found an event that my grandmother did not mention in our interview. “Before any concrete steps could be taken to implement the grand development plan, events intruded on Wilmington as it became part of a tragic national story. The riots that followed the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King in the Spring of 1968 hit Wilmington’s West Center City the hardest, leaving buildings and homes smoldering. The downtown business district received a severe scare but little direct damage. The most damaging aspects were the psychological scars left in its wake and the dramatic overreaction of Delaware’s Governor, Charles Terry. A downstater and former judge, Terry believed an insurrection was underway and kept Delaware National Guard troops on patrol in downtown Wilmington for 9 months, long after the violence had subsided. This became the longest military occupation of an American city since the Civil War. Businesses joined the white flight to the suburbs in ever- greater numbers.” I find this to be an important event in Wilmington, whites took flight after this event which caused the great decline in population. My grandmother moved away from  Wilmington to be with my Grandfather, she never mentioned an event that actually caused a great number of Whites to leave.

Shirin: When and where were you born?

Dr. Galson: I was born in Mont Clare, NJ in 1950.

Shirin: Do you have like kids?

Dr. Galson: I have two sons. I have a 29 year old son and 23 year old son.

Shirin:  Do you want to talk about what you are doing now?

Dr. Galson:  You mean like career wise? I am a psychologist. I have a full time job with the School of Philadelphia as a school psychologist. And I have a private practice of psychotherapy.

Shirin: How was your experience at school like back in the days? Like how was your experience?

Dr. Galson:  I was a very conscience student.  I worked very hard on my assignments. I really had a drive to do well.  I was very interested in learning.

Shirin: Did kids from different backgrounds get along?

Dr. Galson:  In my school….in my high school……let’s see. I would say the kids from different backgrounds kind of kept to their own selves.

Shirin: So like their own group?

Dr. Galson: Their own group.  There were separate groups.  There was not very much mixing accept on the sports teams.  The people who were  on sports teams related to all different kinds of people and mine interest and my friends were mostly in like the literaray magazine and I’m just trying to think who was working on the literacy magazine and there were some differences in background but not a lot.”

Shirin: What did you experience during the Civil War or Civil Rights?

Dr. Galson: Civil war? I was not alive?

Shirin: I’m sorry.

Dr. Galson:  That was a long time ago.

The civil rights movement

I finished high school in 1958. I wen to a college that was very full of politically active people.In fact, I went to Antioch College, the alumna of my college was Coretta Scott King.  And 50 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr was the commencement speaker. And also the brother of you those civil rights, the three civil rights guys, anyway, these 3 civil rights guys who were killed. Um, one of their brothers went to my college.  So, as you might expect, there was a lot of political activism a lot of participation in various marches and movements related to voting rights struggles. Also ending the war and draft in Vietnam.  There was a draft then and there was a lot of activism around not sending people into the army. And actually Martin Luther King made himself very unpopular with both the civil Rights community with his base of support when he came out against the Vietnam War. And his broader agenda to confront racism and also the military industrial complex at that time wasn’t his most popular stand because  folks thought the most important thing was Civil Rights for all different races but he saw it as.

Shirin:Do you want to talk about what you went through? Did you have race problems?

Dr. Galson: I personally as a white person did not have what I would call race problems. I am Jewish and have encountered very little anti-Semitism. In fact Jewish people were pretty active on behalf of the Civil Rights Movement on behalf of racial equality. I wouldn’t way I had problems personally

Shirin:How old are you?

Dr. Galson: Since I was born in 1950 I am 64 year old. My birthday is not until the end of the year. I’ll be 65 in December.

Shirin: Thank you for your time.

Dr. Galson: It was my pleasure.

During the interview on April 29,2015. My grandmother and I spoke on the topic of her childhood and how she really never seen or experienced racism. The audio first started off with the few questions I had as it went on she spoke on how she didn't care for racism because race didn't play a big part in her life. She witnessed a lot horrible things but only in the south, she never backed down when there was a problem with race.  She also talked about how she lived  in majority white / Jewish neighborhood. Her best friend was white she went to a school name Stokley which is no longer existence but she did attend Benedict College that’s when she started to see the racism existed. As an young adult she helped in her community with the Strawberry Mansion Civic.

Research

Promoting place- Strawberry Mansion neighborhood and environs... Pride of place and connecting opportunities ... "building bridges". In this document I found for the planes of ‘The strawberry Mansion Neighborhood Association “ it gave what they were about and why they did it. The Strawberry Mansion neighborhood was the first area to receive neighborhood planning support and to complete the planning process through the issuance of this document. The planning process has involved the residents of Strawberry Mansion and community input has been a key component in this process. Several community meetings were held with area residents at Strawberry Mansion High School where citizen comments were documented. Informational reports and presentations were also given at these meetings in order to facilitate discussion and ideas to support the plan.

Abstract

This interview is on Ms Delores and nabor of mines. In this interview she talk about her childhood leading up to her adulthood she talks about all the challenges she face in her life and even talks about famous past a current event that happened and are happening. She also gives her input in my things like this happen and who it could be stopped

Research

The baltimore riot stated becuase a a young mans death. Gray's death on April 19 reignited a public outcry over police treatment of African Americans that flared last year after the killings of unarmed black men in Ferguson, New York City and elsewhere. More than 3,000 police from Maryland, New Jersey and the District of Columbia, and National Guard members in helmets, took up posts in front of businesses and hospitals in Baltimore a day after the worst rioting in the United States in years.

Resources

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/27/us-usa-police-baltimore-idUSKBN0NI1N720150427

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/28/us-usa-police-baltimore-idUSKBN0NI1N720150428

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Baltimore_protests

Interview Below

Me ~ Hi may you please state your name?

Deloris~ Deloris Thompson

Me ~ Hi Deloris Thompson so umm what year were you born?

Deloris ~ 1956

Me ~ Umm were you born?

Deloris ~ Philadelphia Pennsylvania

Me ~ Umm where were you raise umm and where were brought up at?

Deloris ~ well, i was partially raised in north philly, Uhh after my mother had difficulty she had mental problems i went to live with my cousin Junoir for her to complete raising me

Me ~ O ok, umm were you were a little kid life as a black kid as they state it, umm what was life like for you?

Deloris ~ It was tuf- Ruff because my mom had left home my father raise us at one time and he couldn't complete the job, so they moved us children up into germantown it was kinda difficult

Me ~ Did- Did you ever feel like alone like you didnt really have someone?

Deloris ~ At one time yeah

Me ~ Hmm, um, do you remember any raci- like did you ever get any racist remarks, against you while you were little that you remember of?

Deloris ~ Not really dont remember racist remarks towards me

Me ~ Ummm, what would you, What would you say was the hardest thing for you growing up in those times when things were segregated?

Deloris ~ I try to block them out

Me ~   Do you remember any riots that happened?

Deloris ~ Well, i , uh, well Martin Luther King was killed (chuckles) i remember newton stores and tearing things up and everything because the was really upset and, so uh i seen a lot of ..

Me ~ Violence?

Deloris ~ Violence, at that time

Me ~ Umm did you ever participate in any riots?

Deloris ~ No

Me ~ Were you ever part of a group trying to prevent Segregation?

Deloris ~ No i didn't try to prevent it i tried to embrace it and make a difference i think all people are made equal so the thing was ignorance played a big part and segregation so i always look at it like, trying to make a difference, trying to bring people together, tu from all races, that was the biggest thing i learned from being a child because were all were all the same  

Me ~ So you agree with umm, basically your trying to say that you shouldn't ,fig- fight back with ignorance you should fight back with intelligence and kindness

Deloris ~ yes

Me ~ okay, umm would you say as you got older did things get better for you ?

Deloris ~ yes

Me ~ Could you state some of those things that got better for you?

Deloris ~ i decided to go to school for nursing, that became a big help because i got to meet different type of people, umm, i got married and my husband, i was a doll baby and queen to him so i was treated very well, but i went into the health feal because i knew people needed to be helped and to be able to un- understand because after i got older you know working in that field you hear the colored girl or the black girl or sometime the niger so i learned to embrace it and i learned to talk to people about it, eh, im just the same as you, eh, im just darker thats it and thats how i coped with that situation

Me ~ So when you were working there were racial remarks through to you but you embraces you were proud of who you were and you were a beautiful young black women who was doing what you needed to do to per, pursue in life

Deloris ~ yes

Me ~ okay as you were little in any, in any point in your life were you ever afraid or concerned of anything that had to do with segregation, like were you ever scared to go outside because of segregation or anything?

Deloris ~ eh, uh, eh eh fishtown you didn't want to get caught in after dark and all i could here is you better not go in that neighborhood (manly voice), but uh at one time Kensitin was the same way and uhhh, so i was scared to go into fishtown, but i did venture into Kensiten f and Westmorland and at the time it was rr- you know fights, so uhh i played bingo there for a long time like 10 years and they embraced me and that took care of me and it was a beautiful thing

Me ~ So Ms Deloris i have one final question for you earlier in the interview you stated that you umm, believe that you dont fight ignorance with ignorance you fight it with intelligence, umm so do you feel as though you segregation has gatten better over the years?

Deloris ~ Well yeah it got a lot better, it better than what it use to be because  you can go in just about anywhere you want in philadelphia without it being really racist so its much better

Me ~ Thank you Ms Daloris

Deloris ~ Your Welcome

Abstract

In this interview, Mr.Diallo mentioned that there were positive and negative views  of  President Sekou Toure.  One of the negative things Sekou Toure did that had a huge impact in his life is that he was racist. Sekou Toure was so generous and kind, but he used segregation between the different tribes in Guinea.  Mr. Diallo was a victim of segregation between the Fulanis and the Mandingos tribes in Guinea, Africa. He was denied the access to go  abroad to study when he was in college.  While his other classmates were allowed to go abroad to pursue their dreams he was denied the access to make the dreams a reality simply because of his tribe..

Research

Ahmed Sekou Toure segregated the Fulanis because the were very smart, rich and had a larger population. The Fulanis in Fouta Jallon (the village were the Fulani ancestors were came from) were very smart. Chérif Manta Mady, told Sekou that the Fulanis were threat because of their power, wealth and education.  They might be the reason why he would lose his place as president.  Since then Sekou feared Fulanis. Since he didn’t get a chance to finish his education, he had a feeling that the future Fulanis will come and try to rule the land, so in order to stop them, he had to stop them from getting education. The only way to that was possible, to deny them the access to study outside of the land.

Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_S%C3%A9kou_Tour%C3%A9

http://www.webguinee.net/bibliotheque/histoire/andre-lewin/sekou-toure-president/volume-1/chapitre01.html

How did Sekou Toure rule as a presidente?

The positive rating, Sekou Toure had no diversion in cases of the state in the bank, in finance, and that the people do not steal his money in a very positive side, but they did not steal money, money had value, they did not have inflection. The rating of the employer is naive there's no lateness , if the student finish their study, They are all employed in good jobs.You understand? so that about it. And security, now also I’ve talked about the security. you can go around walking all night and even a fly won’t touch you. The people don’t come in the houses of other people, to break to destroy the houses of people, and stealing  whatever they want, and killing people, no. Or stopping on the roads to attack taxi drivers and they people inside of it,

Me: They still do that though?

Mr.Diallo: They had a total and very strong security. okay you understand? These are positive rating.

Negative rating now, is that Sekou Toure ... he recognize that every person that he thought could replace him at the place of being a president.  He would catch them and put them in prison.

Me: What put them in prison?

Dad: Yes, any high quadre, the people that studied well in schools, that have their diploma, that are so so good. He knows that they can validly take/replace his place, he fears that they will try to replace him. So he would  arrest them and they were forced to be killed. That’s the negative side about Sekou Toure.

Me: That’s sad

Mr.Diallo: He denied the access for all the Fulanis to go abroad and study

Me: Wow, why is that?

Mr.Diallo: Because they are fulanis

Me: Wait, only for fulanis?

Mr.Diallo: Only the fulanis! All the fulani students that had scholarships was decline. I was a victim, me that is talking to you right now.

Me: Awww!

Mr.Diallo: I was a victim! Your dad was a victime de racial segregations of Sekou toure. A had the scholarship to go to romany ut because I was fulanis I didn’t go.  like Sekou Toure until that year, that when I started hating Sekou Toure.

What can you tell me about Africa(Guinea)  that was scary back in your days? because I heard stories about it.

Mr. Diallo: Oh you know, umm scary… Africa scary back in my generation, don’t know what you’re trying to say, I don’t know what you mean by that, you are asking me about witches?

Me:Yes

Mr.Diallo: No, you know every people has their own culture, every people as their own tribes, their rules. That what differentiate the people. So in Africa we always talk about witches. Particularly in the African countries , we say this person is a witch, they can eat people, But is that cently proved?.. It’s not  scientifically proved. We can’t explained about that ciently. But in Africa in the villages when someone is sick, we say that it the witches that ate them, and the witch is the persons and or uncle, and their are the ones who ate them But isis true or is it a lie..

Me: That’s what they call black magic?

Mr.Diallo:  because it’s not scientifically proven, I don’t know. But It’s true that it exist in Africa, that promen of witches, they say there are people that eat other people.

Me: You know your little brother back in the village was eaten by the witches, they used black magic on him.

Mr.Diallo: My brother. No  he wasn’t eaten by the witches, it’s something else. But what I really believe exit is the les fetiche. When they tell you you are going to die and you are. They can kill you if they want. they can even make lighting when it’’s not raining.

Me: Is that still continued in African? Like do they still make that?

Mr.Diallo: yes, It’s still excite and it’s the most scariest thing about Africa.

Abstract

In my interview with my grandfather on May 11, 2015 at 6:23pm, he talked about a place called the Black Bottom in West Philadelphia. When he was around 8 years old he moved from 60th & Callowhill to 38th & Fairmount ave. My grandfather said he moved down their because his mother and father broke up and she didn’t have any money to stay where they were at first so they moved down to the Black Bottom where it was predominantly African Americans which is the reason why it’s called the Black Bottom.

Research

In the source I found it tells where the Black Bottom is and what it is. The Black Bottom was a part of the city in West Philadelphia. It was referred to as Area 3 but is now known as University City. In the source it says “The Black Bottom was framed by 33rd and 40th Streets on the east and west, and Lancaster / Powelton and Curie Boulevard (University Avenue) on the north and south. The Black Bottom received its name from its location at the “bottom” of West Philadelphia.” In another article I read it talked about the wealthier white people lived towards the top of West Philly.  Both sources below are for the same topic of the Black Bottom.

Sources:

http://philadelphianeighborhoods.com/2012/12/04/powelton-village-university-expansion-destroys-a-community/

https://theblackbottom.wordpress.com/communities/blackbottom/history/

Transcript

Grandpa Interview- James Johnson & Egypt Bracey (May 11, 2015 @6:23pm)

Background About My Grandpa:  My grandfather was born and raised in West Philadelphia in 1939. He lived on 44th and Fairmount Ave which is called “Down the Bottom.” He learned to drive at the age of 14. He had one brother who went into the Army and later died. AT a young age he had various jobs and later became a chef working at many restaurants. In 1968 he met my grandmother and they got married and had two children. He still lives in West Philly with his wife, children and grandchildren.

EB: Hi I’m Egypt

JJ: Hi I’m James Johnson grandfather to Egypt Nixon.

EB: Okay I’m just gonna ask you 10 questions about your childhood and segregation, discrimination when you were younger.

JJ: Ok.

EB: Okay umm, how was your life during segregation?

JJ: Well it was pretty rough. I live about 44th and Fairmount Ave and I was born in raised in Philadelphia. So it wasn’t to much segregation where I was at.

EB: Okay. Was the school you went to segregated

JJ: Umm… No

EB: Ok. Did you ever experience any discrimination while you were in school or were you ever bullied?

JJ: Yes I was bullied.

EB: Can you tell me more about that?

JJ: Ok well yes because I was bullied because I was by myself i guess. I went to school by myself because I was the only child, well not the only child but I was the only young child from my mother and I went to school and all that and I guess I was bullied more because most of the kids were darker than me and I was lighter. And actually my grandparents, my grandmother was white and grandfather was Indian. Ok and I was really born and raised 60th and Callowhill, I was born and raised up here, and actually when I was living up here on to the age of eight it was really integrated. But it was only three black families on the block. On the five city blocks of 60th and Callowhill on down to 60th and Haverford on over to 60th and Market.
EB: Were you ever disrespected by anybody white?

JJ: Yes

EB: Okay umm, do you have any personal experiences with discrimination or racism?

JJ: No, not really.

EB: Do you remember being friends with any white kids?

JJ: umm, yes. They kids I went to school with when I was living up here on 60th street there was a boy named Louis Brogen, he was white and umm, there was white families on both sides of me. On 60th street there was  white families that lived on 60th street on both sides of my house.

EB: Ok. Was the neighborhood you lived in mostly blacks or whites.?

JJ: Mostly white when I was younger and as I got older we moved from mixed neighborhood to the thing that was called the Black Bottom down 37th and Fairmount and that was mostly black. My mother and father had broke up, so my mother didn’t have and wasn’t earning enough to live up here so we moved down to the Black Bottom.
EB: Were you ever bullied in school about your skin color?

JJ: Yes.

EB: Can you tell me more about that?

JJ: Well I was mostly lighter than the rest of the kids, most of the kids were dark skin and I was brown skin.

EB: How is your life different now than when you were a child?

JJ: Well it’s great now. Its altogether different than when I was a child. I have a good life now, good life.

EB: Were you ever apart of any Black Movements such as the Black Panthers?

JJ: No.

EB: Okay Well thank you for letting me interview you.

JJ: Ok

Abstract

In my grandmother’s interview on May 11, 2015 at 6:10pm, she discussed that she moved up to the North from North Carolina in 1966 during the Great Migration. She was born in Washington, NC and grew up in a predominantly black community. The stores weren’t good to shop at and her mother and father couldn’t really make a living down there. When my grandma turned 23 she was searching for a job so that she can support her mother. So she moved Philadelphia to search for a job, she then started a career as a nurse at the University of Pennsylvania hospital and made a living in Philadelphia.  

Research

Abstract:

On In my interview with my great uncle and former Marine James Jones jr, we first discussed his life in the Marines and what his experiences were with racism and segregation. He briefly talked about his childhood life living in New York City and Philadelphia and how it differed when traveling between the North and South. As an African American male he was definitely put to the test as he faced physical and mental hardships by whites. Towards the end of the interview I was pleased to hear that our views on race in America today, and our views on how African American children today take opportunities for granted were so similar.

Research:

When condoning my own research about segregation and inequality for blacks in the North and South, I found that my uncles interpretation about how life was for blacks was pretty accurate. There was no such thing as land of the free even though slavery had ended. Even though blacks didn’t necessarily have physical shackles and chains around their ankles and necks, but they did have on mental chains and shackles. Racial Inequality took place of slavery. Even after the Civil War the inequality between races continued in the South but they tried to cover it up with this whole idea about being separate but equal. There were even laws made known as Jim Crow Laws, which made it obligatory for things like schools, hospitals, restaurants and public transport to be racially segregated, or which banned marriages between people of different races. As the years have gone by since then, it seems as if things have died down but now with fresh cases like the Brown case and the Trayvon Martin case both sides are starting to get rowed up again.

Sources:

http://www.getting-in.com/guide/history-gcse-revision-53/

https://prezi.com/wl6zibafokhp/racism-against-black-people-in-the-1950s-and-60s/

http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/freedom/1865-1917/essays/segregation.htm

Interviewer: Adam Bennett

Interviewee: Pop-Pop (Orlando)

May 11, 2015 7:00pm

AB: So, at what age did you first experience discrimination?

PP: I say about 14 or 15

AB: Do you know what happened?

PP: Oh yeah I was in the South, some white guys rolled by in a truck and hollered out the window “hey n*****” and I was in the yard doing something and they was on a back of a truck and I guess it was ten or twelve of em it was girls and guys and it was many years ago.

AB: So, what was your reaction?

PP: I holler back I holler back “hey you cracker” because that what we would say down south somebody would say something to you that’s what you would do.

AB: So, growing up did you hate white people at the time?

PP: No no no no, I didn’t.

AB: Well, how did you feel about them did you feel like they were ignorant?

PP: Well, I was raised on a farm we had our own farm so I wasn’t working under them I was working under my father. I wasn’t like the other black people in the south they didn’t like white people because they treated them wrong. No, I got along with them my next door neighbor was a white guy and we got along good, I used to go up to his house we didn’t go in the house that much, but we would be out at the barn doing things. But no I never disliked white people.

AB: So did you care what was going on at the time or did you sort of pushed it off?

PP: I didn’t care I mean I it was what I was raised into I didn't look at it as much then as i do now and it didn’t look as much different to me I didn't see much of it.

AB: Ok so, how was your teenage life from 14 till you were an actual adult.

PP: Well my teenage life was great because when I was 15 I got my driver's license my mother started me in school when I was 5 so when I was 15 my records in school said I was 16 so I got my records from school and went and got my driver’s license and my brother got a car and I started driving the car we worked in the farm and I had a really good teenage life you know I had good parents that raised us good and my teenage life was great all until I turned 18 and moved to Pennsylvania.

AB: When you came to Pennsylvania was it different from the South?

PP: I didn’t see too much difference because in the South we went where we knew we could go you know all the Piccolo Joints and we only went to black Piccolo joints and just like how you were in a town or anywhere else I was raised that way I wasn’t taught that way but when you go in a place you see water fountain white’s only water fountain blacks only I mean you were use to that and it was no other way and when I come to Pennsylvania it just wasn’t no signs so I didn’t see too much discrimination either way.

AB: Were you active in the Civil Rights Movement?

PP: No I was in Pennsylvania no I wasn’t active in it at the time when they started marchin’ and everything I was in Pennsylvania no marching was here.

AB: Have you ever had besides relationship with your neighbor any relationship with white people like a girlfriend?

PP: After I got into Pennsylvania yes yes I dated white girls yes.

AB: Would you like to explain on that?

PP: Well yea I can say that I never had like a steady girl it was like going to the club and meeting a girl and you would drink and you might go to other places. I didn’t have like steady girl that I would date you know I had a good friend that was a white girl and I had no problem with that.

AB: Did you receive “good” education growing up in the South?

PP: Well I had the opportunity to receive a good education and I had an opportunity to go to college and go all the way and my father was able to do it and the ones in my family that wanted to go to college which was only two they went and you know. It might be my fault that I got just about what I want and not just me we were living good we own our own land and everything at the part I didn’t see in having a good education. I wanted to be successful which was having fun and having a nice car and that was it.

AB: Would you say that your family created your own culture?

PP: I could say that my family created my mother and father and yea they created their own culture not too much I didn't have too much into it.

AB: Were you playing any sports, music were you doing anything?

PP: I used to box and wrestle and I was a good wrestler I never been thrown the whole while I been wrestling and it was free wrestling so there wasn’t training I trained myself.

AB: Have you ever been physically motivated to act upon a white person?

PP: Nah nah nah there was some kids that used to come around and we used to beat em up not beat em up but you know just smack em and do stuff just to get them scared and at that time their was more of us and white people would catch black guys if it were more of them. It was never nothing personal that lasted long it was over and we were through with it.

AB: Did you...you were ever like against what was going on in the Civil Rights movement?

PP: Yes I was against that, I knew that not all whites, but the whites didn’t like the blacks, but I didn’t participate in any of them because like I said earlier there were no marches in Philadelphia like it was in the South and I had left the South.

AB: Were you ever able not to do something you really wanted to do because you were black?

PP: Not really well, there are things that I couldn’t do and that I didn’t do because I was black I didn’t put myself in that position. Not really not really, I never approached anything and not done it because I was black because I had better sense not to approach it I understanded segregation in the South and in the North and that’s why I never got caught up in that.

AB: We’re going to wrap up here, but what is your whole thought on Segregation?

PP: Well my whole though on segregation is that a lot of people will look at it as black and white, but segregation is all over the world just like racism. Even in the mid-east all over the world there are segregation it’s races that hate each other races that love each other. Just now, I was looking on the news in China they still got slaver they got thousands of people on fishing ships in slavery we wasn’t the first one in slavery back in Pharaoh days in the middle east and slavery has just been around for awhile.

AB: Thank you Pop-Pop

PP: Well thank you.

The Failed Coup of Opposition Groups or Parties against the Gaafar El-Nimeiri  

Interview by: Saraa Fadl

Interviewee: Osama Fadl

Date: 5/15/15

Time: 9:00 pm

Abstract: In 1976, there was an attempted coup located in Khartoum, Sudan in which my father, who was 11 years old at the time, had witnessed. This failed coup was lead by opposition parties against president Jaafar El-Nimeiri and his military at an attempt to overthrow the military government in Sudan and take over. He mentions how the event that happened at that time is connected with what is happening today. He talks about his opinion of the situation and the government.

Research on Jaafar El-Nimeiri

He was president for 17 years (1969-1985). He was a US ally and was known for creating a sharia law that he thought would make Sudan peaceful but instead, it created conflicts between the north and the south. He was responsible for creating a lot of conflicts from his ruling which resulted in him being exiled in Cairo, Egypt. He was in exile for 14 years and came back to Sudan in 1999. He tried to get reelected but did poorly. He died on May 30, 2009 at the age of 79.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaafar_Nimeiry

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8075376.stm

S.F: Hello this is Saraa Fadl and I'm here to talk about the failed coup led by various groups such as the Islamists, The Uma Party (A Political Party) that opposed Jaafar El-Nimeiri with my father who at the time was 11 years old witnessed it. So how are you?

O.F:I’m alright.

S.F:So, I’m just here to ask you questions based on your knowledge about the failed coup. So, what happened based on your knowledge?

O.F: That time there was we were coming from  a wedding of my cousin and the wedding lasted until 4 am in the morning that day and while we were coming my dad’s pickup truck we heard the bombing and shooting. Was like far away it was supposed to be like in downtown which was like maybe about 67, miles from where we were but still we were overhearing the bombing so when we got home we were outside just listening and you know wondering where was that and then the news came in and said there was a coup led by the opposition but the official government was saying like they were saying is  a missionary from overseas past soldiers from other countries. They came to invade Sudan so that helped the government which is the military at the time helped them to you know the people help them because they were against the foreigners.

SF: So did this last all day or..?

OF: It was until like from like 3 or 4 am to like maybe around 11 or 12 and then you know when the people that came in, they came in and they couldn’t control the government or the country or the capital. Then they were driven away from there from the center and they came closer to where I lived like a mile so there was shootings all morning.

S.F: Was this a school night or a weekend?

O.F: It was Friday i think Thursday night to Friday night. it was the next day was.. we were

S.F: So it lasted a couple days?

OF: No I think it was the fighting was until 12 or something and then the government came back and the president was overseas and then they took over

SF: So when this happened he didn’t know about it or...?

OF: No he knew about it from overseas and i think he was directing it from overseas but there was some of his ministers and his people in the military you know that helped him.

SF: Did you witness something disturbing? Did you hear, see, or smell something unusual?

OF: No it was far away i mean i was too young to go and you know but we just heard stuff we heard the guns if we weren’t in the wedding we wouldn’t hear that. We would be asleep but it happens at the time of the wedding night of my cousin so we heard the whole thing and we stayed up but i didn’t see anything.

SF: Did you see any helicopters?

OF: No there were soldiers on the ground they were trying to control the radio and the tv stations and the military installations.

SF: So you mentioned it was far away, where was it located?

OF: In downtown like where the TV and the radio stations and the military headquarters.

SF: So where were you?

OF: Like in the suburbs, like 6 or 7 miles away.

SF: Of Khartoum or..?

OF: Downtown yeah.

SF: So when you first saw it, was there anyone in the family that knew about it a little bit, so that they can fill you in because you probably was confused at the time?

OF: Yeah, I had my cousin he was in the secret service, like the internal secret service, so yeah, he didn’t know too, but when he came back later on, he told us it’s a, you know, a missionary they call it مرتزقة (which is like paid soldiers from overseas from other countries). So thats how the government defeated them but they were opposition parties opposing the government but when they came they brought people that didn’t know the area they didn’t know the city, and they looked different from the people in the city, so it was easy to see that they are not sudanese, so the propaganda of the government they told them to pay missionaries to stop. All the sudanese were behind the government so thats what he told me.

S.F: How are people knowing about it now or years after the event happened? Do you think they are teaching that in school or are their relatives telling them?

OF:yea i mean people are talking about it because we are in the same situation right now in Sudan. There is a military government, there is a military taking over the country for now 25 years and the opposition parties are against the government and at this point, there were a lot of fights, there are a lot of wars in the south and the west and now people are trying to come together in a reconciliation so it’s the same situation like at the time 1976 i think ‘75 so its the same scenario happening right now so people are trying to--

SF: Compare?

OF: Yea, it’s comparable because its the same situation. the opposition were against the government. some parties of the opposition are fighting the government and now everybody is trying to come together and have a peaceful reconciliation and have a national government so it doesn’t get worse.

SF: What is your opinion? Do you have a side?

OF: No I am with everyone coming together because the country’s situations are getting worse, economically, politically, and socially. People are going back to their tribes, going back to their ethnicity.

SF: Because of the government.

OF: Because of the government trying to rule by dividing the people, dividing the parties together, dividing people against people, so they managed to control the country but in the end, the country is divided and divided, so hopefully they can come together and bring all the sudanese to one government and then work in improving the situation in Sudan.

SF: Are there leaders in Sudan that are trying to fix it?

OF: Yeah there is some leaders but because i think that personally because of selfishness they don’t want to join. They feel like they supposed to get more than what they can get, they don’t want to compromise. They are selfish and it can’t work with some parties joining and not the others it’s going to be the same problem. So everyone has to come so that's why its difficult to bring everybody in but that’s the only solution right now. otherwise it’s going to be wars its going to be like civil war. There is some wars fighting in the west, in Darfur and other states in the country but it’s going to be more people even in the capital because there is a lot of guns now with each parties so--

SF: So, history is repeating itself.

OF: Yeah. So the president at the time was wise and he managed to reconcile people but now i think the president is trying but i don’t know if he is trying hard and some opposition parties are--

SF: He’s(the president) abusing his power?

OF: Yeah of course I mean he’s responsible for all the mess that happened at the end.

SF: Is he the same president as what happened a long time ago?

OF: No that was El-Nimeiri now it’s Al-Bashir. There was a democratic elected government in between the two military governments but it’s the same problems and same situations.

SF: Ok , thank you!

OF: You’re welcome!

Abstract

On May 9, 2015 at 6:30 pm, Daina Haughton and her grand-aunt Louise Allen talk about Jamaica in the 1960s. Daina and Louise talk about where Louise was born, what she did for fun as child, how many siblings she has and more. The interview has more of Louise’s life than what Jamaica was like in the 60s but it does offer an important event which happened in Jamaica.

Research

Haile Selassie visited Jamaica on Thursday April 21,1966. About 100,000 Rastafari was at the Palisadoes Airport awaiting the man who they thought of as a god. Awaiting his arrival, they smoked marijuana and played drums. When he arrived and stood on the steps of the airplane, the crowd beat calabash drums, lit firecrackers, waved signs and sounded Abeng horns. The crowd pressed past security and was on the red carpet they laid out for him. He returned inside the plane and after a few minutes sent for one of the Rasta leaders. He told him to tell the crowd to be calm. He told the crowd to step back and let the Emperor land. The leader escorted Selassie to his limousine. Selassie did not walk on the red carpet.

Selassie’s visit had an impact on a few lives in Jamaica. Bob Marley’s wife, Rita Marley, converted to Rastafari faith after seeing Haile Selassie. In her book and in interviews, she says she saw a stigma on Selassie’s hand and was instantly convinced of his divinity.

His visit had a great impact on the Rastafari religion. They gained respectability from outsiders for the first time. By making Rasta more acceptable, it opened doors for the commercialization of reggae, which lead to more global spread of Rastafari.

Sources

http://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2014/02/haile-selassie-in-jamaica

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grounation_Day

Transcript

DH: What is your name?

LA: Louise Allen.

DH: When and where were you born?

LA: February 22nd 1947 , Westmoreland, Jamaica.

DH:How many brothers and sisters do you have?

LA: 8 brothers, 7 sisters.

DH: What do you remember about your parents?

LA: They were, they always worked very hard and provide for us, very supportive, kind and gentle.

DH: What  did you do for fun as a child?

LA: Play a lot a games and I use to crochet a lot.

DH: What big world events were the most memorable while you were growing up?

LA: When Queen Elizabeth and Haile Selassie visited Jamaica in 1966.

DH: What was it like growing up in Jamaica in the 60s?

LA: …. Growing up in the sixties was good although there are a lot of changes over the years.

DH: What was it like before Jamaica gained independence?

LA: Before Jamaica gained independence everything, laws had to be ratified in England by the Queen and signed.

DH: Was this good or bad ?

LA: It was good to a point and umm , well at least it had its advantages and disadvantages.

DH:What was it like after Jamaica gained independence?

LA:That was good for Jamaica because everything was done there and they didn’t have to depend on England for everything although they still had to get some laws ratified there.

DH: What was the education in Jamaica like in the 60s?

LA: Education in the 60s umm were good because we have to study very hard because without, without studying and ahh the education you couldn’t get into college. You had to have pass like a GCE and JSC.

DH: What is GCE and JSC?

LA: GCE is uhh General Certificate of Education, JSC is Jamaica School of Certificate.

DH: What, when did you move to America?

LA: In the late 70s

DH: What was it like when you got here?

LA: I had, it was a little difficult at first because I had to adapt to a lot of changes, which I did adapt very well.

DH: How was race understood in Jamaica?

LA: In Jamaica race was like, there was hardly any racial problem because since the population basically is, mostly black.

DH: How does it compare to the US?

LA: Much, there is a big difference because america is like people from all different parts of the world are here, different nationalities, so that makes a big difference and with so many people, over 300 million people live here.

DH: How has that changed over time if it has changed?

LA: Things have changed but still there are a lot of racial issues to be dealt with.

Abstract:

Ed Gillen reflects and talks about his views on race and the Civil Rights. He was in transportation for the military shortly after the Korean War ended, for 3 years. He talks about where he lived and how he grew up in an ethnic neighborhood. Where the only biases were between different European ethnic groups like Italians, and the Irish. He ends the discussion on his view of the recent events dealing with police officers killing unarmed black men, and how that can be connected to race.

Research:

The Korean War began in June 25,1950 and ended in July of 1953. Casualties reached up to the 5 millions by the end of the war. Unlike WWII and the Vietnam War, the Korean War got little media attention in the U.S. The most popular representation of the war is the TV series “M*A*S*H.”   The U.S. dropped the first atomic bomb ever only 5 years earlier in Japan. Once the Korean War started, many assumed that an atomic weapon would be used in the conflict. 

Sources:

www.mentalfloss.com

www.history.com/topics/korean-war   

YouTube: The Cold War: Crash Courses U.S. History #37 

Transcript:

Interview with ED GILLEN

MAY 9 2015

E: I'm just gonna start with just asking you when you were born and stuff like that. Then we'll start getting into like, the meat of it. So... whats your name?

P: Ed Gillen

E: When were you born?

P: November 2, 1935. I'm not thinking I'm just talking.

E: Ha ha. So my first question is, do you actually know what the Civil Rights Movement was?

P: I remember a lot of them, yeah.

E: Where were you at the time, around 1960? When it was really starting to become a topic of discussion?

P: 1960.... Many years ago..I was 35, married, two children.. I think I was living in ah..Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

E: Lancaster, Pennsylvania?

P: Yeah.

E: Were you in the country or were you serving?

P: Uh, I was out of the service at that time.

E: Um..what did you actually do while in the service?

P: OK, I graduated college in 1958. Went into the air force for 3 years and in that time I spent about a year in Korea and uh spent a lot of time in Japan, because I was in transportation.

E: So you weren't in any of the fighting or anything?

P: No. No it was pretty much over by then, the Korean War was over..

E: OK... So I know that, at least to my knowledge, like back in that time there was a lot of segregation...What was your perspective on race, just like then? Were you cool with segregation or were you like, you know we should treat everyone equally?

P: Well being up north, I wasn't really around it at all. And uhh yeah, I went to a public high school and we lived in ethnic neighborhoods back then. It was like the Polish neighborhoods, the Irish neighborhoods, the Italian, Hispanic, and there didn't seem to be a black neighborhood around at all. (So you weren't really around segregation?) No but the public schools had all the kids from all the races and there never seemed to be any problem or I would think of, you know, no one seemed to be against each other.

E: So it was like everyone was the same?

P: Yeah, it seemed to be.

E: So you didn't grow up with, aw this race is bad, and stuff like that? (No) Did you ever feel like any of that stuff ever affected you, or were you completely isolated?

P: I was isolated from it, or just it just never came up.

E: It was like everyone is the same. Cool, so have you ever been in the south, during that time? Did you ever see segregation?  

P: Well, I remember when during college, we use to go for spring break, down to Miami. (Yeah) And so there would be four or five guys that would pile onto a car. drive down there and when we would drive through Georgia to get to Florida, we would past a lot of the segregated parts. We would stop off at a gas station, we would be seeing signs like uh, colored water fountain. That kind of things.

E: Seeing that, did it ever bother you or did you not pay any mind to it?

P: ...I didn't pay any mind to it.

E: Alright, how did you feel towards the civil rights, were you for it, were you against it, or were you just neutral?

P: I'm just like today, very neutral about..everything. Ha ha ha. I don't make raise and I don't even watch the news anymore, I just wanna keep my head in the sand, kinda thing. Just uhh let everybody get by in the world.

E: You were in pretty neutral territory all throughout your life.

P: Yeah, I never....That was way before any kind of agitation on college campuses, for anything like the Vietnam War and things like that. I was basically out of all that. When i went to college you had to wear a shirt and tie and a suit jacket. The seniors, they would wear hats because they were ready to get a job.

E: You were in service, but you weren't in the fighting, at all.

P: When I was in the Air National Guard, the Atlantic City Air National Guard I was there for about 4 years. And I liked that because it was one weekend a month in Atlantic City, and I enjoyed that. But then what happened when the "Pueblo" got captured president Johnson activated the Atlantic City Air National Guard. And uh activated our unit, and I went to Korea another year. Ha ha ha ha. I went to a Korea air base, lived in tents and.. just like Mash. We were very similar to a Mash unit. Lived in tents, worked in tents, except that they were the ones during the war. We were just there during, just to be there. We were the tac-fighter squad but we had no airplanes to support. They took the airplanes and sent them to Vietnam. They sent 25 pilots, and they sent men to school, learning to fly another aircraft. An then the 900 work troops, which I was one of those went to a Korea air base just to sit there, in case war broke out. we would be there in place, and they would send us airplanes to support.

E: They had you ready.

P: They had us ready, then after a year they deactivated the Air National Guard. And then I left the Air National Guard, I didn't want to re-up again.

E: Now I know that, I forget exactly, but you got in your truck and just went all over America.

P: Yeah, that was when I retired.

E: What year was it?

P: 1969...no wait take it back. Ha ha... I was 69 when it happened, so it was 10 years ago.

E: So like 2005?

P: Yes, 2005.

E: OK that's too soon, we need to go back some more. OK so I know that you lived in Germany for awhile.

P: I spent two years in Germany, my wife and I. (This was before..) This was just before I retired, I was about 62 or 63 and uh they moved uh I had a problem of moving our plant to Mexico. And then we closed up the plant in Pennsylvania. And I didn't want to go to Mexico or Gastonia, North Carolina, where we had a plant. SO uh they said, why don't you go to our parent company in Germany for 2 years, and work on a computer system they were installing a SAP, which is a German software manufacturer. So I sent two years and I came back, after two years and just hung around for a while, then retired.

E: So, um do you think that the way you grew up, like your childhood, just made you not have any bias against any race?

P: Back then the biases that I saw there the Polish against the Italians and the Italians against the Irish. It was Pre-Hispanic, it was all the European ethnic groups and they really didn't get along.

E: Yeah, so that's really the only bias you saw?

P: All our fighting was between (each other).

E: So you never saw like whites against blacks?

P: No, there weren't any blacks around cus we lived in ethnic neighborhoods. Elisabeth, New Jersey had Peter's Town which was Italian, Curry Head which was Irish and The Port which was Polish and uh some other groups in here ha ha ha. Yeah it was European bias or bigotry, European bigotry.

E: So you never got to see the full scale of what was going on.

P: No, it just never seemed to be that way.

E: With the stuff happening in the South, and MLK, did you ever hear about it and..?

P: Well you would read about it in the papers, but it was so far from us up here in Pennsylvania..

E: You never even felt like you were affected by it.

P: Exactly right. It's like now a days the way the media is, something happens in Afghanistan or some country you never heard of, Crackistan or something like that it makes the news. Back then I just never payed attention to it one way or the other.

E: Yeah, now uh....you're white, you're Caucasian, do you feel like just over all, and when you were traveling, have you ever felt like you had a stereotype placed on you, by another race?

P: No nope, never never...No matter where I went, Tokyo, Korea, anywhere I never felt out of place.

E: You got raised right. You didn't have to go through any of that. (I didn't have to, no.) You got it easy.

P: Well back then, I think, white people had no difficulties accept if you were in the Irish or the Italian neighborhood. You gotta watch (haha) cus there were small gangs back then. But the gangs were not violent gangs, it was more talk and then two guys would fight.

E: It was only like fist fights, because nowadays someone will pull out a gun and kill someone.

P: No that never happened.

E: Now with the, I don't know if you heard about it, but the stuff that happened in Ferguson and Baltimore right now, with the guy getting killed because of spinal injuries while under custody, and how a lot of people are linking that to race and every thing (Well it probably was.) Do you feel (I'm sure it was.)...you sure?

P: Yes, I'm sure it was, well you know there is no doubt in my mind that a black person with white cops, although some of them where different races too I think, I think the Mayor is gonna charge 6 policemen with murder. Yeah, and I think the mentality of cops isn't quite right to anybody. I think, you know the other one with the guy was running down the way and the cop shot him. (The was the thing in Ferguson) Yeah, there's been a lot of things like that.

E: Do you feel like we're just downgrading from what we've accomplished back in the day, when it was really serious, like when there was a lot of segregation? Do you think we're going back to that?

P: Well I think almost every ethnic group had fight to get ahead. Like when the Irish were digging the Erie Canal, I mean they were the lowest of the low, I mean they were lower than the Chinese. Cus they just thought the Irish people drank and uhh that was it. (Drank and fought.) So the Irish eventually became cops and I think they took it out on people who they thought were lower status.

E: That's actually just what I was about to ask you. Cus like with stuff happening now, do you think that cops back in the day had a similar thing?

P: Well look at ancient history, there was always some group beaten up on another group.

E: Yeah, well mostly it would be a group of authority too. Like a guard beating on the poor.

P: The ones who had the power were the ones beaten up on the ones without the power. There's no doubt about that.

E: Do you think that that's just always how it is throughout history.

P: Yeah, and uh given time the circumstances change, it'll be a different group if you know what I mean. (Yeah) During the war it was the Japaneses. You know what they did to them in California, they put them in concentration camps just because they thought that they still had allegiance to Japan.   

E: Well I think this concludes it.

P: Yeah ha ha good luck.

E: Yeah thank you. Well thank you for letting me interview you and all that.

Abstract:

My grandmother reflects on life growing up , while she faced discrimination and many other obstacles that crossed her path. In the interview, she begins by sharing her own experiences that she faced back as a child. Also in the interview she shares, an memorable event that played a huge role in her life and others.

Research:

On July 23, 1953, City Councilman Raymond Pace Alexander called for the admission of African-American students to Girard College, the North Philadelphia boarding school for boys that didn't have a father. Almost fifteen years later in June 1968, Alexander joined fellow civil rights activist Cecil B. Moore at a rally celebrating the end of the school’s segregated admissions policy. On that day, Alexander and Moore reflected on the evolution of strategies, objectives, and leadership within the modern civil rights movement. As historian Matthew J. Countryman rightly observes, “the modern civil rights movement was as much a product of the black experience of racial oppression in the urban North as it was of life in the segregated South” and those experiences keenly shaped how the effort to desegregate Girard College unfolded through the 1950s and 1960s. This was an important memorable event for my grandmother in which she will never forget.

Sources: http://northerncity.library.temple.edu/content/collections/desegregation-girard-college/what-interpretative-essay

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2015/05/01/celebrating-50-years-since-protesters-help-open-door-to-black-students-at-girard-college/

http://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?marker Id=1-A-369

Transcript:

1. Did you have any experiences with discrimination?

• “Yes, as a child I grew up in South Carolina, everyday was discrimination because as a child, how you were treated, most thought that was the way of life.”

2. How do you feel about the role race play in society?

• “It shouldn't be a role that race plays, everyone should be equal.”

3. What do you remember from the Civil Rights Movement?

• “I remember Cecil B.Moore fighting to have Girard college accept black students.”

4. Do you think that racism is an important issue for children to be aware of?

• “Its very important , because prejudice is a learnt behavior it's taught first in the home.”

5. What do you think is the best way to oppose/end racism?

• “By treating everyone equal, not by the color of their skin or were they came from.”

6. Did the civil rights movement affect you and if so how?

• “It affect me because it gave me a greater desire to not live an oppressed live although I was labeled as an oppressed people.”

7. Why do you think racism is still going on in the 21st century?

• “As long as there is hate, disrespect, and ignorance it will always go on.”

8. What are your feelings towards racism?

• “It makes me sad, and it's painful.”

9. Which time period do you think race had the most positive impact?

• “Time periods differ, when anything positive came out, in the society of division , there were a impact , being the 60s , 80s, and even now, there were an impact.”

10. From your perspective how does Race and discrimination differ?

• “because society continue to label people as minorities, people of color are looked at as less valued and not on an equal level.”

Abstract

In this interview Clifton Mabry, a 68 year old man from High Point, North Carolina, reflects on his life and important events that happened in his life during the 60’s. He also touches on some of the events from the Civil Rights Movement and how it affected his life in mostly positive ways. This interview doesn’t really touch on key components of the Civil Rights Movements because it is told from the point of view of Northerner, but it does get into significant events that occurred.

Research

Emmett Till was brought up in this interview. Emmett Till was a fourteen year old boy that was murdered and tortured for flirting with a white woman. His accused killers were put on trail, but were acquitted by an all white male jury. His death sent shockwaves and opened eyes across the world because he was nothing, but a child who was ignorant to the fact that behaving the way he did would be problematic. Mentioned previously, his accused killers did eventually admit to killing Till, but were never put on for retrial.

Something else that was mentioned in the interview was the riots on Columbia Avenue. These riots began when two Philadelphia police officers responded to a domestic dispute at 22nd and Columbia. The dispute ended up drawing a crowd that attacked the police officers with bricks and various forms of debris, but the officers didn’t get attacked because of their efforts to stop the dispute, but because of rumors and misleading information. The misleading information was that a white police officer beat a pregnant black woman to death. Looters took over stores, crime rates skyrocketed, and business were lost or destroyed. Once the riots were over and North Philadelphia was restored the long lasting effects of the riots began to take place.

The murders of two white males and a black male was another thing mentioned in the interview. The three men killed were Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney. These three men were on there way back from a trip to Philadelphia. While on their way back deputy sheriff/KKK member Cecil Price pulled the trio over for speeding. He held the men in custody while the rest of the Klan set up for the murder. Once the Klan finished they were let go. Later down the road the trio was closed in by two Klan cars and the three were shot in their heads and put into hand made graves.

Sources

Emmett Till

Columbia Ave. Riots

Abstract: In this Interview, the interviewee, Mrs. Rios, tells us about her childhood during the time of the Civil Rights Movement. She recounts many events she remembers from her childhood and gives us insight on how her life was during this time. Mrs. Rios also shares with the interviewer, her son, a memory she has of the death of president Kennedy. Then further into the interview she begins to tell us about her views on what life has become know and how the world has changed so much since the 60’s. This interview talks more about the interviewee’s life during her time as a child and some of her experiences growing up during the Civil Rights era.

Research: In 1954, in the Brown vs. Board of Education case, the supreme court had outlawed the existence of legal segregation within public schools. This then led to the integration of African Americans and whites into the same schools. This was a pivotal point in the integration of races in the United States. In 1963, the 35th president of the United States, John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. He was the youngest president to be elected and the youngest to be assassinated. Before his death the Civil Rights Act was created but not passed due to his death. In 1964, while in the hands of Lyndon B. Johnson, it is passed in honor of JFK. My mother, the interviewee, life had begun after the Supreme Court choice in the Brown vs. Board of Education trial. She went to school when schools were being integrated and according to her memory her school was not entirely integrated. She also remembers the death of JFK and realizes the profound impact it had on people.

Sources:

http://www.colorlines.com/articles/may-17-1954-supreme-court-rules-racial-segregation-schools-unconstitutional , https://www.whitehouse.gov/1600/presidents/johnfkennedy , http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/Civil-Rights-Movement.aspx?p=3 ,

In Bold - Interviewer

In Italics - Interviewee

So who are you and when were you born?

My Name is Daisy Nilda Rios, born in Mercer County, Trenton, New Jersey

When?

May 11th, 1958

So, where did you grow up?

I grew up in a city called Trenton, New Jersey.

Describe it for me.

Trenton, New Jersey in the area where I was born and raised, was considered, mostly, the majority, 99% was black.

Did you know allot of white people around there?

Just a few at school.

But, No where else?

Where my dad and mom use to work at, at the hospital.

Where those the only interactions you’ve ever had with white people?

Yes.

So there wasn’t a lot of mixing or… ?

99% were black and hispanic.

Tell me what was school like for you.

School For me?

Yea.

It was go to school, come back home, home, back to school, school, back home.

Did you guys, was there any racial barriers that kind of came between your school?

Well also my school was the majority, were a lot of black people, I can’t recall any memories of my childhood, going to school.

Did your parents ever let you guys interact with any other races?

As a (incomprehensible) we were raised, well we were not allowed to be outside, like the generation now a days it’s mostly, “Mom can I go outside.”, Which in reality, when I was growing up we were not allowed to interact outside the home. It was always going to school and coming back home and never going outside and playtime. My parents were really strict on this.

So did your parents let you play, well if they did let you play, did they ever let you play with the black kids?

Yes we had a few kids that we were, the little bit of time we had outside was the black play (incomprehensible), we liked the double dutch thing, it was very popular then. And jump rope, but we did get a chance to play.

In all your time growing up can you name any of them?

Remember names? No

Do you remember how they were like?

They were all about my age as we were growing up, ten, eleven, twelves, mostly girls. We weren’t allowed to play with any boys, and recall names? I don’t remember.

Would you have considered yourself, kind of segregated from everyone else?

I wouldn’t say segregated, it was just the way were raised,

Like accustomed too?

Accustomed too, it was just a habit that we all grew into, the same custom you know.

Did you know anyone who was in support of the Civil rights movement at the time?

I guess my parents were.
Your parents?
My parents.

Tell me about your parents and their relationships, considering race.

Everyone got along with each other, you know back then there were no problems, like discrimination and bullying and stuff like that it was always like that you go to school and come straight home and if you were working, you go to work, and come straight home.

When you were younger how did you see the Civil rights movement, how did you understand it?

I didn’t really understand it.
Like what was going on?

What was going on, and all I know is when Kennedy got shot, I saw my mother got really upset, like someone really close to her really died, and it was like on the news, it was like you know like, it was very crazy, at that point.

When kennedy died you like five years old, correct?

Five or six years old. I just remember my mom seeing the news on the TV and she went ballistic, she was like really, they were really, back in that time, really heart broken when that happened.

Do you know why?

No

Since then do you think your views on race have changed?

My views, on race? No, we have the blacks, we have the hispanics, we have the orientals, we have a few whites, No problems, I think that I can interact with whatever nationality you might be.

So I guess that will conclude this interview.

I was going to say that my biggest trip was to go the state fair, that was our pleasure and fun that we had every year.

Ok, so before we end this, How was the state fair?

The state fair was like a big concert going, that was our only family outgoing trip that we always do, it was a long walk, we always had to walk, but the state fair was like wow, it is like a carnival to us here now a days, but over there when we were raised the state fair was like a big thing to us, you know seeing all of the animals and stuff like that, what you guys consider know to be a carnival now it’s just a carnival.

Yeah, It is just like no big deal.  

It’s no big deal.

I will ask my final question, did you witness any discrimination or experience any discrimination?

My father getting beat up, would that be considered? The only thing that I can say, that I saw with my own eyes, was when my dad was coming home from work one night and it was like four guys beat him up.

Do you know why?

Well I guess, they were trying to rob him. And steal his money and he was just coming home from work.

Do you know what race the people who were trying to rob him were?

I wanna say black. It was four black guys. But other than that, I say that we don't have the advantages that the race and childhood have now. You know, you can go outside, you can go with friends and stuff, we didn’t have that pleasure at home, we couldn’t even watch TV, we had one hour on a friday to watch Television, but other than that we weren't allowed to watch TV.

Do you have anything else you wanna add?

Like back in the day, like when I was being raised we didn’t know what bullying is, what it is now. Discrimination what their calling discrimination now. We didn’t know those big words at the time we were being raised. So, my point now is like everything has a name to it now. Back in the day we didn’t have a name for it. You know, being bullied.

You kind of just saw it as it is?

Yea we just, Oh they’re having a fight cuz before you were able to fight one on one. Not now, it’s a whole gang coming to beat you up or stuff like that but as naming, we didn’t know bullying and discrimination or having problems with races and stuff like that. It all has a name now. It didn’t have a name back then, or didn’t know the names of it. Yea you know you fight and it was always one on one, a couple days late you made up. It’s like, not now they want to shoot you or kill you and stuff like that all with violence and stuff, it wasn’t like that before. So my conclusion is, people need to communicate with each other and trying to avoid and be truthful if you are being bullied say you’re being bullied.

So just paybacking off of that, do you think there’s more I guess kind of racial violence between now and back then?

Now, there is a lot. A lot more than back then.

Its worse or?

Its worse now. Like I said we never had a name, when you was getting beat up or when the kids were picking on you at school because we called it just picking on you but it was never like bullying and getting beat up and stuff like that. It was just a normal fight. We going to fight, one on one. It’s not like now with knives and guns and stuff like that. Its way different now.

I guess we’re done here.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for letting me have this opportunity mother. (Laughter)

1) Describe your project. A description of my project is my dream house for this technology class.

2) What did you learn while completing this project? While completing this project i learned how i want my dream house to look, and i learned how to create it in 3-d.

3) What was the hardest part about completing this project? The hardest part of completing this project would have to be actually making more floors i think after that i was good with everything.

4) What was the most fun/exciting part? The most fun part of this project was making the house i mean it's nothing better than watching your dreams come true.

5) If you were to do this project over again, what would you do differently? If i had to do this project differently i would probably have saved all of my work and made sure that the website saved my work.

http://www.homestyler.com/designprofile/0f42bff1-4fa3-46b0-abfe-36888ffe2ed8

http://www.homestyler.com/designprofile/7dedd01f-13b2-4f9c-8995-eb8d352f954d

http://www.homestyler.com/designprofile/9cec0ca7-c7fb-46ba-858f-306000eeb2da