Oral History E. Johnson

Abstract:

Norman King was born in Chester County. Where he was from there was barely any segregation. But, in certain states there was some discrimination. For example some people would aggravate negroes for no reason, police guards would pull people over for no reason. He thinks back then there was no equality. And “WE AS THE PEOPLE” have to come together and discuss the issues of discrimination. He also thinks as of today he still witnesses and hears about discrimination. Dr. King also thinks it was pointless because why did negroes have to be the ones that got the worst.

Research:

In Chester County Norman’s neighborhood was clean, quiet, and nice because they kept it that way in their environment and worked together to keep it nice. Norman says the only reason it was is because the negroes stayed in their place.

Resources: Times New Roman NewsPaper, http://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/african-american-residents-chester-pa-demonstrate-end-de-facto-segregation-public-schools-19

http://chescodems.org/?tag=segregation

Transcript:

Eidayya:How are you? I presume you went through the Civil Rights Movement can you tell me your basic knowledge on that?

Norman: At that time between 1955-1965 there wasn’t up north here in pen. We didn’t face any problems because there was no segregation where he came from. In chester county where, I came from they treated us fairly but, there was no equality. Puerto Ricans looked at us as no class. Reason being was there was so few of them so they had to adapt. They couldn’t adapt to the english because we didn’t know spanish. The white man thought of that and so did the black man. In my area they looked at white people #1, black people #2, and others no existence. If you were smart they put us in the front of the class. His dealing of dislike of negroes, black was a harsh, bad word. You were a negro. Where he ran into it wasn’t so much in pen. But, I had a problems in the state of Delaware and Maryland. When negroes went into the state of Delaware they were automatically stereotypes. You were treated poorly. In stores if you were driving in the state of delaware and you drove past a police officer he would follow you and pull you over to say something was wrong. In the state of maryland when a police officer would pull you over the name calling came out those names were boy, for a woman it was “you gals” other things would be what are you doing, where are you going, and you need to get there in the state of pen. If you said something back they would sometimes refer to I don’t care what Malcolm X did, or MLK did they’re not here to save your ass. My block where I lived was 50% white and 50% black. The interactions that we had were friendly because we worked as a unit to keep our block clean. The white people would help you with anything/ home problems because they had knowledge of your character. It was a tough time but, it was a foundational time because they were trying to put up a solid foundation for equality minus race and minus gender. Coming from that time it was hard understanding it because our parents didn’t talk about it they just told us what to do and how to stay in our place and to have an education so we can take care  of ourselves and our families. Finally, not to forget “once” you came. In 2014, we throw race out.

Eidayya: How old were you when you went through the Civil Rights Movement?

Norman: I was 15 years old.

Eidayya: At your age what was happening back then?

Norman: It was rock and roll. The processed hair, they hot combed their hair. They wore high watered pants. The language was kind of hip. Everybody wanted a Corvett or a 1955 Thunderbird. Elvis was one of the top hits. Little Richard was out. Chuck Berry was out. ALot of white musicians tried to mimic him. At that time white musicians tried to mimick black people.

Eidayya: What was happening that involved the Civil Rights?

Norman: If it’s fine they can bombard him with questions. Schools, transportation, the economy. Refer back to the top paragraph.

Eidayya: Do you have any experiences with discrimination?

Norman: In that period no, I was a child. I carried golf bags. But, going into maryland and delaware yes. People tried to do things that would make you get mad so that’s where the inequality came.

Eidayya: How did it affect you?

Norman: It made me always look at everything and analyze it and see what is going to be best for me. That being how can I get a good education, can I take all the things I got taught to the white era apply them to myself and get the same results they’re getting. And it worked, I skipped two grades. i started in the 4th and in november they put me in the 5th. When I finished I went to the 6th grade. When i got into 7th grade the same thing happened. I did half of seventh and went to the 8th grade. I went to college, thenI I went on to medical school. When my white teachers saw I was able to come up to their standards, they pushed me. In college there wer only 12 minorities out of 600. There was no talk of race at the height of MLK. (What happened down North didn’t concern us) It was downplayed because we weren’t in the south.

Eidayya: How has your perspective of race changed?

Norman: I don’t look at it today because it was a problem then. And I’m trying to shed the feeling. I don’t like it. Problem solving has always been on my mind not gender and  not race.

Eidayya: As of today do you still experience discrimination?

Norman: Yes you do. You experience discrimination today. For example, public schools trying to fight charter schools.

Eidayya: When the Civil Rights Movement gained momentum did it change the people around you?

Norman: People my age we were kids we didn’t pay attention to it, No. But, my parents were aware of it and what ever adjustments we had to make our parents made the adjustments that were necessary.

Eidayya: When the Civil Rights Movement fell how did you feel?

Norman: It’s never been over with. We look at the situation and we adjust it with our circumstances. We watched our enviroment.

Eidayya: How did the society change?

Norman: They made programs social media and now those people made the problems more visual. They try to get government more involved in it to make different changes, groups, and causes within the united states.

Eidayya: Is there anymore information you want to add to this?

Norman: No thank you.

Eidayya: Okay thank you for your time.

Norman: You are so welcome.

Eidayya: Alright bye.