Oral History

Abstract: Ileka Barker interviews her grandmother Betty Jane on the civil rights movement and life around that time. She explained the things she had to deal with in her every day life and how we are lucky that the world has shaped into how it is now, also she talked about Martin Luther during that time period. She was born in 1955 and around that time she was still in her teens. She said she did not experience anything, no one every targeted her or came at her in a negative way.

Research: Martin Luther King was born January 15 1929.As we know Martin had a long history of doing things for his community, later in 1955 he accepted to be the first leader of the negro nonviolent demonstration of contemporary times in the United states.After that he became like the national peace sign everyone came to him and believed in him as hope. He made a huge difference.

Link:

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1964/king-bio.html

Transcript interviewing Betty Jane

IB: Hi my name is Ileka Barker and I’m interviewing my grandmom todays date is may 18, 2014 and its 4:08 pm, I'm going to be interviewing my grandma about the civil rights movement and how it impacted her

BJ: Hello

IB: Hey ma ma

BJ: Hold on a minute sweetheart.

IB: Okay

BJ: hello

IB: Hey how are you ?

BJ: I’m good dear, how are you ?

IB: Yeah, I’m good, can I ask you some questions about the civil rights movement ?

BJ: Yeah I hope I can answer them sweety, wassup ?

IB: How old were you when the civil rights movement started ?

BJ: How old was I when the civil rights movement started.

IB: Yeah

BJ: umm, I was around 10 years old

IB: oh okay, so how was life around the time.

BJ: Life around that time well, umm. How can I say this we didnt have alot.

IB: Mhm

BJ: umm, my mom worked and everything ya know and like if she cooked you know umm. Like say for instance if we happened to have pork chops

IB: mhmm

BJ: If we were lucky enough to have pork chops it was one for everyone one of us that might have been in the house and we had to eat, things were lean, you know it was hard times.

IB: Yeah

BJ: It was hard times we didn’t have a whole lot of stuff you know, it’s almost like kind of now for a lot of people who is struggling, you know black people struggle.

IB: mhm

BJ: Black people struggle you know and if you, it was just rough.

IB: Did you, were you targeted, did people target you ?

BJ: Was I targeted ?

IB: Yeah, since you were so young ? You could see a lot of racism

BJ: No,no,no,no I never got targeted when I was young, no

IB: Okay

BJ: No I didn't get targeted, now I can say that about my mom, my mom was born in alabama and she came up here when she was a teenager but I don't remember anybody in my family ever saying they were targeted or anything. But umm when I was a little girl, you know.

IB: Mhm

BJ: My dad, I know I heard, you had to ride on the trolley cars.

IB: That’s when your mom was young ?BJ: Yeah we couldn't go, I was born but I was still little. You know certain neighborhoods couldn't go into the…

IB: Oh really ?

BJ: Like near Girard avenue they had like white, wherever it was white folks at they didn't want us blacks folks to be at.

IB: Yeah

BJ: You know stuff like that, Have you ever seen Documentaries on the Civil rights movement ?

IB: Yeah we’ve been watching alot in class recently

BJ: Well it was like that

IB: Oh wow

BJ: yeah it was like that, you know how and a lot of times I had holes in my shoes, cardboard in my shoes

IB: How was like school around that time

BJ: Well from what I can remeber you know school was okay and when I first started there was some white people in my school but I always remembered when I stopped seeing them because that was elementary school.

IB: Oh so they weren't there in like middle school and stuff

BJ: I hadn't seen any, I've got to look on my graduation picture from junior high school, I don't think it was no white kids in my class.

IB: Oh

BJ: I dont remeber no white kids being in my class in junior high but I don't remember any white kids being in my class in elementary and kindergarten and first grade because I went to, I don’t remember no white kids being in my classes.

IB: Oh really

BJ: It was so long ago, what you see in those documentaries it’s pretty much like that.

IB: Oh thats crazy.

BJ: I had grandparents who had a club and they made money like that and it seemed like it was the elderly people who had their own homes and stuff like that. My uncle worked for what is called septa now It used to be called the ttc back during the civil rights movement

IB: So like how much has the world changed since then ?

BJ: Huh ?

IB: How much has the world changed since then ?

BJ: It has changed an awful lot except for maybe like a lot of us are still disenfranchised

IB: Yeah

BJ: LIke it seems like sense are president has got elected it seems like racism has raise over head again. You know what I’m saying ?

IB: Yeah

BJ: Now I had people that have acted nasty towards me in stores you know the different lines in the late 70s early 80s and the civil rights movement was over with. You know Martin luther king had died.

IB: Wait so you was

BJ: They don’ t wanna wait on you or something, you know what I’m saying.

IB: Yeah, did you like ever meet him

BJ: Noo, uh uh

IB: He was alive during the time right.

BJ: He was alive, ya.

IB: ohh

BJ: I think he was assassinated in 68 I think

IB: ohh

BJ: I think he did I have to google it

IB: Okay, thank you mama for the answers.

BJ: You know when they bombed the church with the girls in it.

IB: Oh yeah, how old were you around that time ?

BJ: And, wait a minute that was around in early 60s .