Oral History Benchmark Kevin Williams

Abstract

In this interview my Grandmother Gloria B. Hopkins talked to me about how she never really encountered any racism personally. She also talked to me about how our family that was in Alabama was brought up and the segregations  problems that the family faced in that part of the country.  My 65 year old grandmother goes into great detail on how things were taking place back in her time.

Research

My Grandmother talked about how her High School didn’t have any racial problems but a High School in Little Rock, AR  couldn’t say that. A couple African Americans kids were brave enough to attend an  ALL WHITE school. After the school day the kids were harassed and verbally assaulted. My Grandmother also stated that in Alabama there was segregation with a lot of the public facilities. In my research I found out they kept most of the public black units separate from the white units.

Sources

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_segregation_in_the_United_States
  
• http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/freedom/1917beyond/essays/crm.htm
  
• http://www.historybits.com/civilrights.htm
  
• http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/civil-rights-movement-overview
  

Interviewee- Gloria B. Hopkins

Interviewer- Kevin J. Williams

GH- Gloria B. Hopkins

KW- Kevin J. Williams

GH-   Good Afternoon, my name is Gloria B. Hopkins and I’m the Grandmother or shall I say Nana of one of your Pride students Mr. Kevin Williams, and I’m here to do an interview. Kevin has asked me to be a interviewee for one of his projects  at school. So I’m more than Happy to do that. The date is tuesday May 20th, 2014, and Kevin I’m all ready, lets get started.

KW- How are you doing today Nana?

GH-  I’m great how about your self sweet heart?

KW- I’m doing good.

GH- It’s a beautiful day, and it’s election day so we’re hoping that everyone will exercise their right to vote today and VOTE. OKAY

KW- Alright Nana lets get started

GH- Let’s get Started

KW- So my project is about racism as you know, so I just wanted to know when you were in school did you ever encounter any racism?

GH- Kevin I was very fortunate that while I was growing up it was very little if any racism that I actually experienced, living in the North, living in Philadelphia. I know that there was sections of the city where racism did exist, however where I resided it did not.  I lived in a section of Philadelphia called Germantown and section called Tioga. So I did not encounter any type of  racism growing up. Either my Junior High School or my Elementary School and even my High School, I never encountered any racism.

KW- So when you were growing up lIke your friends, were you allowed to play with other white kids?

GH- Oh definately, definately well I grew up as a kid so whrn  I was 11 and 12 most of my friends was of other cultures. Jackie P, Jackie S, and Philis. We were all buddies. We would go in and out of eachothers houses. They would eat at my house and I would eat at their house. There was no type of racism, we never encountered that or I personally never encountered that. Even though I was very much aware that it was going on in other parts of the city, but not basically where I lived.

KW- Did any members in our family,like older members in our family ever really encounter any racism?

GH-   I’m sure my Mother did, my Mother was a nurse and she went to Medical College of Pennsylvania. In Philadelphia on Henrie Avenue. She worked there for about 35 years in Nursery. Yes, she would tell me of times some of the Rpatients did not want her handle their baby because her skin tone was Black. But she was one of the most outstanding nurses that the Medical College of Pennsylvania ever even had.

KW- Right

GH- So i know that my Father was one of the very first black bricklayers here in Philadelphia, he worked for a company called John B. Kelly. And yes because he was black, yes he experienced  racism quite often on the various jobs.

KW-  Right I know that was really tough.

GH- It was tough, it was tough the ground was being broken in the south there were changes that was being made all across the country. It was  a tough time but for me personally I didn’t really  have too much of a first hand experience on that.

KW-  I know that we have family in the south right Nana, like I know that you talked to our southern cousins. I just wanted to know did they tell you about anything that took place down there?

GH- My mother was originally from Alabama. She was from a family of Ten children, 8 girls and 2 Boys. My grandfather John Mae was a very prestigious land owner  there in the South. He had over 450 acres of farmland and they raised Cotton and they raised strawberries, all kinds of sweet potatoes and potatoes. With John Mae being who he was he was very respected in the south. My mother and her siblings they attended school with other white children. I’m sure they must’ve have experienced a lot of racism there.  But as I said  my grandfather was  very well respected in the black and the white communities. My grandmother used to cook big pots she would feed everybody black,white, it didn’t make any difference. So yes in the south “Alabama very much so, but not too much for my parents that I am truly aware. But now back in that time when my mother was alive when she was being raised yes there was Jim Crow there were only blacks only could eat here, for colored people only,different water fountains for white people and another water fountain for colored people. So it was definitely alive and well in Alabama during the 60’s. That’s why we so many race riots and people children wanting to get into white schools and the whites not wanting them to be there. But segregation was alive and well in the south.

KW-  I know that you didn’t really encounter any racism but like I know that you knew what it was and it was happening in other parts of the city and things. How does it make you feel that are race was being fought against really?

GH-  Well I was always raised by my mother and my father to know that I was the best and that I could do anything  that I set my mind to do. My mother worked with a lot of white people as nurses they loved her the doctors they respected her. I  was always raised to believe that I could do anything that I wanted to do. I was always very outspoken I was very well aware what was going on in my surroundings. Not  only here  in Philadelphia but in other parts of the country. I realized that  what I had here in Philadelphia other people didn’t have. The opportunity to go to school to do anything that you wanted to do if you were willing to work hard and set your mind to it. Those opportunities were available to me. I graduated from high school in 1966, from Germantown High School. My class was a very mixed class, whites and blacks. In the area that I live in now in Philadelphia so many of my white friends live in the area where I am now, which is predominantly black. So yes racism was alive  but my parents always taught me that I can do anything that I wanted to do. And that I can do all things through Christ Jesus that strengthens me.

KW-  Alright Thank you Nana, I really appreciate it.

GH- You're welcome I hope that you do well on this, Thank I’m excited that you thought about interviewing your Nana. I love you Sweetheart Good bye