Oral History: Dashawn M. Inniss

Abstract:

The women that Dashawn Inniss interviewed was his second cousin’s wife. Dashawn asked her around 12 question about her point of view during the Civil Right Movement and this is a short summary of what she stated. Coney McIntosh was born in Philadelphia and is currently 55 year old. She have many experiences in life because of the actions of segregation that affects many people in that time even though she was 7 at the time. Her parents were hard workers, her mother worked while her father tried to help with the movement by working with Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and even the black panthers. The actions of her father cause her to be taken and placed in foster care from the age of 5 to 13. Being taken away made her both stronger and angry at the world for putting her through this mess. He moved from foster care to foster care until she was placed in this one household that treated and cared for her like their own child even though they were white and she was black. Over the years she kept pushing forward even though many others cursed her for her skin color, but she didn't care. Education was hard to get,but she got hers; because she kept fighting. Coney is a proud black woman that is proud of the changes such as being able to vote, share restaurants, and so on. She is also proud and happy for all the people that fought for her freedom such as Rosa Park, Eli Whitney, and many other people. Nevertheless, her mother and great grand mother were born in the South but migrated to the North. Her great grandmother was a slave, and her mother believed that Philadelphia is a better place to live. Coney hard a long hard life but believe it was all worth it because it’s all better now; she have children, grandchildren, and a good job all because of determination and change.



Research:


During the interview with Coney, she mentioned that her father worked with Martin Luther King with the movement and was part of the Black Panthers as well. She said her father went out each day to help and stand up for minorities because they were afraid or wasn't able to do it themselves. Although her dad went out to fight she was placed in foster care for this; the government made excuses to take her away stating not because of her father which was a lie.

Based on history, the Black Panthers was believed to be a rebellion organization similar to the KKK except they stood for black people.I say this because they had no problem using violence to be heard, and because they believed that Dr. Kings nonviolence movement wouldn't work and would take too long so they had to put this situation in their own hand. The Black Panther Party was created for Self-Defense by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale to protect minority communities against the U.S. government. The BPP was inspired after the Black Power movement and U.S. politics. Black Panther Party became an icon of the counterculture of the 1960s. The Panthers had many interactions with to police/FBI such as protest, shootouts, and many other situations; now I understand why Coney had been taken away from her family based on her father's actions and involvement with the Black Panthers Party.

Coney’s Father was also involved with Martin Luther King’s movement. The movement was based on ensuring that the rights of all people are equally protected by the law, including the rights of minorities.This was created because the US was being hypocritical with it’s laws towards minorities. In order for their point to be heard and seen, thousands of people including Coney’s father marched, protest, and boycott for everyone in the US to be equal and live happily.



Sources


Black Panthers Party:




Martin Luther King:




Transcript


Interview with Coney McIntosh

May 17, 2014



Dashawn: Today is May 17, 2014, and I’m interviewing.


Coney: Coney McIntosh.


Dashawn: My cousin, and were checking out her point of view of how the, of how she survived through the civil rights movement. Now my first question was, well my first question is when were you born?


Coney: April 1959.


Dashawn: And how old are you now?


Coney: 55


Dashawn: Okay, so uh where were you born?


Coney: Philadelphia.


Dashawn: Uh how was life growing up with racism in the civil rights movement?


Coney: Well during the civil rights movement when uh the movement was really going on when I was only the age of 7 when this was happening, so I did live through it and umm my father marched with them uh to help with the movement


Dashawn: Okay, so you said your father helped with the movement, how did he help and what about your mother?


Coney: My mother worked.


Dashawn: Okay


Coney: My father marched, and he marched with Dr. martin Luther King, he marched with the movement, Malcolm x and so forth.


Dashawn: Was your father in any, like group activities through this. Well you said he marched with Malcolm x and?


Coney: He did a lot of protesting of uh racism. Right he was in the black panthers, he did a lot of marching umm against racism, voting rights, and for non discrimination. for different race color and origins.


Dashawn: Alright, so you said your father was part of it, was you ever involved with the civil rights, movement?


Coney: Just a child of it.


Dashawn: Okay so umm, basically from your past would you change anything that dealt with the civil rights movement if you were ever involved; like would you ever change anything?


Coney: No, not really I think the civil rights movement was a good thing most of it was non violence there was a little violence during that time but not a lot.


Dashawn: Okay uh, because your african american were you treated differently it talked about?


Coney: Yes, most of the time. Named like pick-a-nanny and different things. Uhh I was removed from the home because you know they said my parents didn't make enough money; it was different things going on in my life that affected my life as a child uh. In that movement.


Dashawn: So you became a foster child basically.


Coney: Yes I did.


Dashawn: Okay uh it. Your african american would you ever change your skin color for anything or  are you proud to be african american?



Coney: I'm proud to being african american or whoever I am.


Dashawn: Okay, uh you said you were discriminates so were you discriminated in school or work or anywhere else?


Coney: Oh yeah in school, uh, a lot of time we weren't aloud to sit with the Caucasian children, uh at work. I did private care so a lot of them were uh what you call, stuck in their ways uh, the Caucasian and I've been call names like big fat black B*****. And bastards uh, an unlimited amount of names that were discriminated


Dashawn: Okay, I want to go back to the question I mean the statement when you said that you were a foster child. Did you ever at any time go back to your foster care the foster parents or did you enjoy becoming, I meant well did they treat you right as a foster child?


Coney: Well I was in many of them, uh there was only one couple and believe it or not the were Caucasian that cared for me the best, but when I went back to find them I couldn't find them anymore


Dashawn: okay, it’s at least good that you tried to go back and find them that's very interesting. umm how was things with racism change over time well how did racism change over time?


Coney: oh it changed a lot we can vote we can work freely, your life is not dictated, you can share restaurants, there's a lot of things you can do now that you couldn't do now that you efficiently couldn't do. look at the interracial couples you could not do that at all umm


Dashawn: how as education and yeah?


Coney: how was education during the movement?


Dashawn: for african americans


Coney: they didn't want you to learn, but our parents were pretty smart so if you didn’t learn at school you learned at home.


Dashawn: okay, yeah, or did you learn based on the surrounding like?


Coney: Oh yeah, we were taught a lot about the uhh movement civil right movement and that's one thing they don’t do a lot in school now but uh we had black history and we were taught a whole lot it was many different african americans that made life better for example, Rosa Park Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Eli Whitney, all of them has contributed to the black race and how we live now.


Dashawn: uh did you have any uh like family member that uh before you like, are your family members born and lived in Philadelphia or did they ever live some place else?


Coney: No, my grandma was born in Mississippi and he mother was a slave.


Dashawn: So ya’ll migrated from Mississippi to Philadelphia and that's where.


Coney: From Mississippi, from Georgia, uhh Virginia


Dashawn: So y'all moved from the south over to the east to Philadelphia.


Coney: Some of them, some of my grandmother's sisters and brothers there was 9 of them so I think 6 of them came to umm different parts like New York, Philadelphia, jersey, yeah they did come from south and moved north.


Dashawn: okay uh, do you believe that life living in the US is easier now or similar or different from?


Coney: It’s a lot easier there trying to change it you know uh its all politics but life is a lot easier than it was then.


Dashawn: So uh do you have any like concern about uh how things are going to turn out like do you think racism will ever come back or how things were in the past?


Coney: Not if our young african believe in what they can achieve and keep their heads up they can make it


Dashawn: So you had a long life, a long.


Coney: A long hard life for a long time  my children young and I’m only 55, I’m a grandmother of 24 but umm my life is better a whole lot better foster care makes you umm, I don't know I was a little angry because I wanted to know my family and I was late learning who my family was but by then I was raising my own self.


Dashawn: So how long were you in foster care?


Coney: oh wow, I was in foster care since the age of about 5 until I was about 13 but before that my godparents was trying to raise me because they wanted to remove me from the house. so the god parents stepped in.


Dashawn: it was, it was good to see your point of view and how you went through the civil rights and how it was in your eyes, umm thank you for letting me interview you today and hopefully we just keep looking forward and well not forget about the past but like learn from the past basically.


Coney: exactly, and I want to thank you for choosing me to be the one to give you my point of view I how it helps


Dashawn: as long as I get an A in this class, ha ha . alright have a good day


Coney: You too.


Dashawn: Alright thank you.

RECORDING 2014.04.17 22-16

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